A joint technical committee headed by the Indian Navy along with representatives from the Maharashtra government and technical experts has been formed to probe the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji’s statue in Malvan, coastal Konkan, earlier this week.

The incident has snowballed into a major political controversy in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly polls later this year with the Opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) accusing the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government of corruption and insulting the Maratha warrior king and also seeking Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s resignation.

The 35-foot statue of the founder of the 17th-century Maratha empire, installed at Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg district’s Malvan tehsil, collapsed on August 26, nearly nine months after it was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Indian Navy on Thursday said it had conceptualised and steered the project of installing the statue in coordination with the state government, which also provided funding for it.

“The Indian Navy remains committed to assisting in all measures to repair, restore and reinstate the statue at the earliest,” the navy said in a statement.

“The statue was unveiled on December 4 as part of the Navy Day celebrations, conducted for the first time in Sindhudurg and aimed at honouring the legacy of the Maratha Navy and Chhatrapati Shivaji towards maritime defence and security and its historical linkage with the modern Indian Navy.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday alleged that the statue collapsed because of corruption during its construction. He wondered who received the commission from contractors and demanded the resignation of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar over the controversy.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde has termed the statue collapse “unfortunate” and said the government would establish the cause and re-install the statue at the same place.

Sources said a preliminary probe by police had revealed that the construction of the statue was not up to the mark. A case has been registered against two persons involved in the project — contractor Jaydeep Apte and structural consultant Chetan Patil.

The NCP faction led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has condemned the collapse of the statue and given the call for a silent protest to demand action against those responsible, pointing towards rumblings within the ruling NDA coalition in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly polls.

Ajit’s decision to participate in a silent protest against the government, of which he is a part, is politically significant. This development has sparked speculation on whether Ajit is contemplating a return to his uncle Sharad Pawar’s faction before the Assembly polls.

The Shiv Sena has split into factions led by chief minister Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray, and the NCP into groups led by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar.