As the Maharashtra political drama plays out, 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 plunged the Uddhav Thackeray government into a survival crisis – told CNN-News18 that Sunil Raut wants to join the rebel MLAs.
Sources said Sunil felt that he was snubbed after he wasn’t assigned any ministerial position following the formation of the MVA alliance in 2019. Sources also said that Sunil has been reaching out to the rebel group for the last two days. However, a section of the rebel MLAs isn’t really keen to have him on board, sources said, adding, that is why no decision has been made on this yet.
Sanjay Raut had made several efforts to help his MLA brother get a cabinet berth, sources said. The Sena MP was hopeful that because of his efforts in making the MVA government — a collation of Sena, NCP and Congress — his brother will be rewarded.
The development will come as a big blow to the Uddhav government, which is already stung by Shinde’s rebellion and is teetering on the brink 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 dared the rebels to quit as MLAs and face fresh elections but also said the party doors were open for those who wished to return. He also expressed confidence that the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress will survive the current crisis.
“My open challenge to the rebels is to resign and seek a fresh mandate from their electorate. In the past, Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and their supporters had resigned as Sena MLAs to join other parties. Even (Union minister) Jyotiraditya Scindia supporters in Madhya Pradesh had resigned as Congress MLAs (in March 2020),” Raut told reporters in Mumbai.
Shinde is currently camping in Assam with a group of over 40 Sena and Independent MLAs.
Shive Sena on Sunday said they have initiated action against 16 MLAs and disqualification notices have also been served to them.
During its national executive meeting on Saturday, the Shiv Sena decided to remove all dissident ministers, who have joined the rebel camp along with Eknath Shinde. But, the party refrained from taking immediate action against rebel leader Shinde. In another decision, it also passed a resolution that no other political outfit can use the name Shiv Sena and the name of its founder, late Bal Thackeray even as the Shinde faction, which is camping in Guwahati, said it has named itself ‘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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