Mumbai : Ever since it came to power in Maharashtra in October 2014, BJP has been quietly trying to usurp the near-monopoly that bickering ally Shiv Sena has held over the 17th century Maratha king for the last many years.

The mid-sea Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial — which has been a talking point for all political parties in the state of late — was originally conceived in the 1980s.

Expected to be the world’s tallest statue, the memorial will be 210 metres tall, close to a 12-storey structure, built entirely in the sea on an islet of 15.96 hectare.

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The Shivaji statue will surpass the height of New York’s Statue of Liberty and the under-construction Statue of Unity of Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat.

But the memorial has courted controversy for the mammoth cheque required to be signed for its construction — an estimated Rs 3,600 crore.