Independent lawmakers Navneet Rana and Ravi Rana, facing sedition charges after a row over reciting Hanuman Chalisa, on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court's stay on the controversial law and accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of invoking the 'British-era' legislation to "target" members of the scheduled caste community.

Addressing a press conference here, the Rana couple also declared that they would work towards "uprooting" Shiv Sena's "rule of corruption" in the upcoming election to the Mumbai municipal corporation, one of the richest civic bodies in the country with an annual budget of over Rs 30,000 crore.