In a veiled attack on the BJP, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said those who launch "cyber attacks" on political opponents in Maharashtra should not find it difficult to fight China which is locked in a border standoff with India. The remark in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' came a day after the party's ally Congress alleged that "thousands" of Twitter accounts were opened after actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death in June "just to run a campaign against the Mumbai Police and the state government". The Congress called it a "BJP-driven social media terrorism". The BJP dismissed the Congress allegations as 'wild and baseless'.

The Sena, a former BJP ally, and the Congress are constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece claimed said after Rajput''s death on June 14, '80,000 fake social media accounts' were opened and operated from the US, Nepal, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. "A government which can launch such cyber attacks on political opponents in Maharashtra, defeating China should not be difficult for it," the Marathi daily said, taking potshots at the BJP without naming it.