Mumbai: A controversy over "dropping" the biography of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from Class IV books of the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) broke out just days before the Maharashtra assembly election. While the department of education is being blamed for exclusion, officials from the city-based Maharashtra State Council for Educational Research & Training (MSCERT) accused the row of "misunderstanding" and said no attempt was made to remove Shivaji Maharaj from the syllabus. On Thursday, former school education minister Vinod Tawde said under the MIEB curriculum there are no separate topics up to Class IV. Separate topics like history, geography, and science will only be implemented under the board from Class V, which came into being just four years ago, he said.