Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut launched a broadside against the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis-led govt. by alleging that they ran the State like the Mumbai underworld of yesteryears. | file photo
| Photo Credit: PTI
Claiming that a legitimate government was absent in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday launched a broadside against the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis-led government by alleging that the Chief Minister and his Deputy ran the State like the Mumbai underworld of yesteryears.
Speaking in Delhi, Mr. Raut accused CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis of protecting corrupt politicos and criminals and “running their gangs” akin to that of the Mumbai underworld.
“This is not a government. The State is being run like the underworld that once operated from pockets of Thane and Mumbai. The Chief Minister and Deputy CM are running their private gangs,” alleged Mr. Raut.
Referring to the Mr. Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which currently has 40 of the 55 MLAs of the original Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray on its side, Mr. Raut – a staunch Thackeray camp loyalist – said that the BJP had the habit of anointing ‘deceivers’ as Ministers.
“These deceivers include Narayan Rane [who was expelled from the Shiv Sena in 2005] and Eknath Shinde [who staged the coup that toppled Mr. Thackeray’s MVA government]… these leaders have no prestige left in society,” claimed the Sena (UBT) leader.
Remarking on the Supreme Court refusing to entertain a plea by 14 political parties (including Mr. Thackeray’s Sena faction) which had alleged arbitrary use of central agencies against non-BJP opponents, Mr. Raut demanded why the agencies never acted against any BJP politico.
“The Enforcement Directorate [ED] and the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] are being brazenly misused against the BJP’s political opponents. Why is no action ever taken against people within the BJP as well as those who have been cleansed by the BJP’s ‘washing machine’ by joining the party out of fear of a probe against them,” he said.
Mr. Raut has often compared the ruling BJP to ‘Nirma washing powder’, alluding to those leaders from other parties who joined the saffron party, for securing a reprieve from central agencies’ probes into their alleged “misdeeds”.
