MUMBAI: Amid speculation of a possible Shiv Sena (UBT)- BJP patch up, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has claimed that a Shinde Sena MLA has told him that DCM Eknath Shinde is not ready to come out of the pain of being humiliated (for not being made CM). The MLA reportedly told Raut that during the previous 2.5 years, then CM Shinde and Fadnavis were at odds and in two directions.
Now Fadnavis is taking his revenge. The MLA said Shinde has reached a state of trance and is heartbroken. Raut said that the MLA told him that Amit Shah had promised that Shinde will be CM again after the 2024 assembly polls and asked him to spend money in the elections.
But after the results, Shah didn’t keep his promise. Raut said the MLA told him Shinde is convinced that his and his people’s phones are being tapped and he suspects that Delhi’s investigative agencies are monitoring his movements. Raut made the revelations in Rok Thok in his weekly column in Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamna.
Raut said in Maharashtra, despite the BJP and its allies getting a large majority, the state does not seem to be moving forward, the reason for which is the rift between CM Fadnavis and DCM Shinde. Fadnavis recognizes that Shinde is still reeling from the shock of not being made CM again and is desperate to become CM once again.
Raut said the revelations were made to him by a ‘decent’ Sena MLA in a flight. “We will fight the elections under your leadership and you will be CM again after 2024, don’t worry…this was old to Shinde by Amit Shah. Shah had promised this and told Shinde to spend on the elections. Shinde invested a lot of money in the elections, but Shah did not keep his promise and Shinde feels that he has been cheated,” Raut wrote, quoting Shinde Sena MLA as saying.
“The information provided by this MLA is important. …Shinde is convinced that his and his people’s phones are being tapped and he suspects that Delhi’s investigative agencies are monitoring his movements, and Shinde is in a big dilemma now,” Raut wrote.
In Nov last year, a Shiv Sena neta close to Shinde had told TOI there was an agreement after the Lok Sabha elections that Shinde would take over the reins of the state if Mahayuti won the assembly polls. The neta had said that after Mahayuti’s debacle in the LS polls, there were a series of meetings to draft a strategy for the assembly elections.
In these meetings, it was decided that BJP would contest the maximum number of seats followed by Shiv Sena and NCP, but “irrespective of the number of seats the Mahayuti constituents win, Shinde will continue to be the CM if Mahayuti secures a clear majority,” the neta had said.