Maratha king Shivaji is set to get one, and so is the architect of the Indian Constitution BR Ambedkar, along with possibly late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and BJP leader Gopinath Munde. Maharashtra is on a memorial building spree – at a cost of nearly Rs 5,000 crore.The state will spend about Rs 3,800 crore on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial alone. To be built in the Arabian Sea, the memorial will have the world’s tallest statue, at 212 metres, a museum, a theatre and a hospital in an area of 15 acres near the Mumbai coast.Shivaji is a revered figure in Maharashtra’s politics, but many critics have argued that the money could have been better spent on maintaining the forts built by the 17th century ruler that are in a dilapidated condition. However, the ruling BJPled coalition hopes that building the imposing memorial will help it win the support of the Maratha community which has been agitating about jobs and loss of farm income due to the agrarian crisis, according to people aware of the matter.Questioning the government publicly on this can be hazardous, though, as journalist Kumar Ketkar found out in 2008 during the term of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government, which had mooted the project. When Ketkar wrote an editorial and questioned the government on proposing to spend so much money to build the statue when it could be used for other things, his house was attacked by men from the Vinayak Mete-headed Shiv Sangram Sangathan.Mete is now the chairman of the Shivaji Memorial Committee which is overseeing the planning and construction of the memorial.If building a memorial for Shivaji can help the government woo the Maratha community, then a statue of Ambedkar can similarly ensure the support of Dalits. The Ambedkar memorial will be spread over 12 acres of land in Dadar and have a 350-foot statue (about 107 metres), an auditorium, a meditation centre, a restaurant and parking facility. It will cost the state around Rs 900 crore.“No one objects to memorials of Shivaji or Babasaheb Ambedkar but you could have spent the money in a better way,” said Anil Galgali, an RTI activist. “Look at the condition of the forts built by Shivaji – they are all in dilapidated condition. There is an agrarian crisis – on average, 2,000 farmers end their lives annually because of failed crop and lack of finances. This money could have been put to better use.”The Devendra Fadnavis government alone cannot be blamed, however, because both the Shivaji memorial and the Ambedkar memorial were first proposed by the previous Congress-NCP government. That government could not make any headway, though, because it could not obtain environmental and other clearances for the projects. The current government has got all clearances in place and work on the two memorials is expected to start before the end of the year.But the BJP may not stop at these two memorials. To keep its estranged ally Shiv Sena happy, the government has also announced a memorial for the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray which will be built at the Mayoral Bungalow at Dadar.There is no clarity yet on who will fund the project. The Thackeray Memorial Trust, which has Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya as members, has sought Rs 100 core from the state for the purpose. Maharashtra’s finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had earlier said that the state would sanction the money. However, subsequently, in an affidavit to the Bombay High Court the state said that it would not fund the project.Imtiaz Jaleel, MLA of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen , has claimed that the state is allotting land for building separate memorials for Bal Thackeray and Gopinath Munde in Aurangabad. He has now filed a public interest litigation with the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High court against the move. “For years we have been asking for land to build a hospital for women and children in Aurangabad. All we need is seven acres. However, every time we are told that the government has no land,” Jaleel told ET. “Now we have come to know that the state is allotting land to build memorials for not just Munde but also Thackeray in Aurangabad. Why don’t you build a hospital or school in their names?”There are demands for memorials from other quarters as well. For instance, supporters of former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh sought allotment of land in Mumbai to build a memorial in his memory. But the government refused to allot the land, they said, a decision that analysts said might have been prompted by an assessment that it would serve no political purpose.Political analyst Prakash Joshi said the memorials for Shivaji and Ambedkar might put the BJP at an advantage in the polls. “Shivaji Maharaj is a revered figure in Maharashtra, so building a statue for him is not just for Marathas but other communities too. A statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar will help get them Dalit votes. The BJP will use it to say during the polls that they managed to build it while other parties just promised. This will be used to beat other political parties.”Uddhav Thackeray got a taste of this recently. When he announced that he would go to Uttar Pradesh to push for building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, NCP leaders sarcastically asked him to first build a memorial for his father in Mumbai.As campaigning for the next general election gathers steam, politics around building memorials may only intensify.