Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday said that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra is a temporary one and won’t last long. “This (BJP & Shinde faction alliance) is a temporary arrangement. They will not be able to go to people. They were lions in Shiv Sena. Even Kasab didn’t have so much security but they had when they reached Mumbai. What are you scared of,” Sanjay Raut said.
The firebrand Shiv Sena leader said this even as Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the trust vote proceedings in the Maharashtra Assembly. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde won the trust vote by a 164-99 margin and 3 members abstained from voting in the assembly.
Raut also questioned the legitimacy of the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and said the group cannot claim to be the original Sena.
He said that his party Shiv Sena won’t weaken with these developments. “Our oxygen isn’t power. We aren’t strong because we are in power, we are strong and that’s why we are in power. People come and go. They opted to join our party & left due to outside forces. We’ll go to villages, will find other workers,” Raut added.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Raut said these MLAs (of the Shinde group) should ask themselves some questions. They used the party symbol and all benefits that come along with it to win the election and then broke the same party.
“We will definitely contest it in court. If the Shinde faction left the Shiv Sena, then how can they claim that their group is the original party and not the one led by Uddhav Thackeray. The Thackeray name is synonymous with the Shiv Sena,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
Raut said Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu had suspended JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav for defying the party’s order not to participate in an event. “The event was not even in Parliament, but still he faced the action,” the Shiv Sena’s chief spokesperson claimed.
“However, such a rule is not applicable to us when we expect similar action to be taken against 16 MLAs out of 39 (of the Shinde faction). Is it appropriate,” he asked. When a ruling is given as per the convenience of a person or a party, it is not a parliamentary democracy, he said.
In a jolt to former CM Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the Eknath Shinde-led government’s floor test, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.
Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
Bureau Report
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