@vivekbhavsar
Mumbai: Endorsement Directorate (ED) early Sunday morning arrested Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena’s Member of Rajya Sabha and party spokesperson in connection with the Patra Chawl scam. The question raised whether the party will get set back after Raut’s arrest by ED. Surprisingly the answer is ‘No’
Sanjay Raut, a fire brand leader and four times Rajya Sabha member (MP) of Shiv Sena is not a mass leader. Being an Editor of Saamana, a mouthpiece of the party, he wrote the views and thoughts of late Balasaheb Thackeray. Party has allowed him to serve in the Upper House of the Parliament.
According to Sena insiders from Uddhav Thackeray camp, Raut became the stalwart in the party, but he brought the party into trouble. “Even when we were in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during 2014 to 2019, Raut took a stand against BJP through his editorial piece in Saamana. After Thackeray had compared (Narendra) Modi’s team with Afzal Khan’s army during the 2014 poll campaign, Raut targeted BJP and Modi through his articles,” recalled the Sena leader and said that he was responsible for the widening of the relationship between Uddhav ji and Modi ji.
Most of the Uddhav loyalist MLAs too were upset with rebels by Eknath Shinde and held Raut responsible for the political earthquake in the party.
Another Sena functionary said that ignoring party leaders, my party President Uddhav Thackeray is less responsible than the insulting behaviour of Raut with MLAs and leaders.
“Raut was the hurdle between Uddhav Ji and us. He decided on who will meet our leader. That is why we are satisfied with the action taken by the ED against Raut,” said the leader.
Sanjay Shirsat, MLA from Shinde camp openly expressed his comment that it was the fate of Sanjay Raut. “I will not say that I’m happy with Raut’s arrest by ED. But the action taken by the agency is not wrong,” said Shirsat, member of the Lower House of the state legislature from Aurangabad West Constituency.
Most of the leaders from Uddhav’s original Shiv Sena and Shinde’s Shiv Sena claimed that Raut’s arrest will not affect the party, as Raut is not a mass leader and he is responsible for today’s political situation, a common man from Jalna, who is neither a political karyakarta nor a social media user, said that action against Raut is not acceptable. “BJP has crossed its limit and they are misusing ED to take revenge against Shiv Sena for political benefits only.
Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray met family members of Sanjay Raut today and assured them the party is with the Raut family. Thackeray also says that he is proud of Raut. “Sanjay is true Shiv Sainik and I like his statement that he will fight till his last breath but will not join BJP with fear of BJP,” said Thackeray.
