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Mumbai, Aug. 29: Sarkar has got his silver throne back.

Widely circulated Marathi newspaper Lokmat this afternoon returned a silver throne belonging to Bal Thackeray to his Bandra residence in a bid to end an embarrassing controversy.

Vijay Darda, chairman of the Lokmat Group, and the paper’s executive editor Vivek Girdhari visited Matoshree around 1.30 pm and handed over the throne.

Thackeray and Lokmat were involved in a spat last week when the Shiv Sena chief criticised the move by Sai Baba Sansthan at Shirdi to install a Rs 22-crore golden throne for the Sai Baba idol.

Thackeray criticised the proposal as regressive and suggested the trust should spend the money on social causes. The trust then shelved the proposal. On August 26, Lokmat questioned Thackeray’s moral right to raise objections when he used a silver throne at Matoshree. Furious, Thackeray sent the throne to the Lokmat office.

Vijay Darda said the newspaper did not intend to hurt Thackeray’s feelings and was merely pointing out the contradiction in his stance.

Darda’s father Jawaharlal Darda and Thackeray were friends.

Thackeray later said he had asked the carpenter to remove the silver coating on the wooden throne. The party’s labour wing, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, had gifted him the throne as a mark of respect a few years ago.