THANE: State excise minister and Thane guardian minister Ganesh Naik suffered major embarrassment when Marathi-theatre lovers “drove him out” of an auditorium in Thane on Thursday. Naik was forced to wind up his monthly Janata Darbar after the audience gheroed him and demanded he clear the stage for the Marathi play, Thasta.

Gadkari auditorium was made available for the Janata Darbar from 11am to 3pm, but the minister started the meeting at 12.30pm, nearly 90 minutes behind schedule.

The play, scheduled to start at 4.30pm, was delayed by over 40 minutes, as Naik continued with his Janata Darbar despite poor attendance of citizens. Repeated requests by the management to Naik and his officials about the growing anxiety among the audience members went unheeded.

Around 5.15pm, Naik reportedly summoned the manager of the play, Prakash Gamre, gifted him a bouquet and told him to cancel the show. A helpless Gamre then offered to refund the tickets. “Already upset with the delay and feeling insulted by the minister’s behaviour, the crowd marched inside the auditorium, with women in the lead. They demanded that Naik call off his meeting immediately. They said they had purchased tickets for the play, while he was illegally occupying the stage,” one of the audience members told TOI.

Naik reportedly apologized to the audience and immediately left the auditorium. The play finally began at 6pm.

Naik did not respond to several calls and text messages from TOI.

