As the political drama of Maharashtra is underway, it has now emerged that Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s brother Sunil Raut is in touch with the rebel Eknath Shinde camp. Sources close to Shiv Sena minister Eknath Sindhe – whose rebellion has thrown the Uddhav Thackeray government into existential crisis – told CNN-News18 that Sunil Raut wants to join the rebel MLAs.
Sources said Sunil felt that he was duped after he was not given any ministerial post after the formation of the MVA alliance in 2019. Sources also said that Sunil has been reaching out to the rebel group for the past two days. However, a section of the rebel MLAs is not really keen to have him on the board, sources said, so no decision has been taken on it yet.
Sources said that Sanjay Raut had made several attempts to get his MLA brother a place in the cabinet. The Shiv Sena MP was hopeful that his brother would be rewarded because of his efforts to form the MVA government – a combination of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.
This development will come as a major setback for the Uddhav government, which has already been shaken by the Shinde rebellion and is on the verge of collapse.
Meanwhile, in a shot in the arm for the Shinde camp, Maharashtra minister Uday Samant landed in Guwahati on Sunday to join the rebels. He is the ninth minister in the MVA government to join the Shinde camp.
Sanjay Raut on Sunday challenged the rebels to step down as MLA and face fresh elections, but said the party’s doors were open for those who wanted to return. He also expressed confidence that the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress will survive the current crisis.
“My open challenge to the rebels is to resign and get a fresh mandate from my voters. In the past, Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and their supporters had resigned as Shiv Sena MLAs to join other parties. Even (Union Minister) Jyotiraditya Scindia supporters in Madhya Pradesh had resigned (in March 2020) as Congress MLAs,” Raut told reporters in Mumbai.
Shinde is currently camping in Assam along with a group of over 40 Shiv Sena and independent MLAs.
The Shiv Sena on Sunday said it has initiated action against 16 MLAs and they have also been served disqualification notices.
During its national executive meeting on Saturday, the Shiv Sena decided to remove all disgruntled ministers who have joined the rebel camp along with Eknath Shinde. But, the party refrained from taking immediate action against the rebel leader Shinde. In another decision, it also passed a resolution that no other political organization can use the name of Shiv Sena and its founder late Bal Thackeray, even as the Shinde faction, which is camping in Guwahati, said that He named himself ‘Shiv Sena’. (Balasaheb)’.
Besides Shinde, cabinet-level ‘aayog adhyaksh’ Rajesh Kshirsagar, Dada Bhuse, Gulab Rao Patil, Sandeep Bhoomre, Shambhuraje Desai, Abdul Sattar and Bacchu Kadu will be facing action as decided by the national executive.
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