Factional feud within Sena out in the open as Sena leader Kadam accuses Minister Parab and Samant of trying to finish-off party

Ramdas Kadam accuses ‘Anil Parab and Uday Samant colluding with the NCP to finish-off Shiv Sena’.

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Pune: Factional feuding within the Shiv Sena’s top leadership from Konkan region has emerged on Saturday after senior Sena leader and former minister Ramdas Kadam on Friday accused his party colleagues Anil Parab and Uday Samant of allegedly trying to finish off the Shiv Sena by secretly colluding with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Kadam further accused State’s Transport Minister, Anil Parab of attempting to finish him off politically. Parab on the other hand refused to comment on Kadam’s accusations.

The senior Sena leader (Ramdas Kadam) urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to take note of the alleged ‘conspiracy’ brewing within the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress and allies form the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in the State.

Asked whether he intended joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kadam asserted that he would always remain a staunch Shivsainik and would never quit the party. Kadam had served as the state Environment Minister from 2014-2019 in the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Sena coalition government.

Escalating the charge, Kadam alleged, “Anil Parab has no time for protesting employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) but he was stationed in Ratnagiri for three days to drive me and my son out of politics…A meeting was held here and all loyal office bearers were expelled. I think Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has no idea about what is happening.”

Ever since the MVA government came to power, this is the first time that a major infighting has come out in the open in the Sena. The infighting between three top leaders of the Konkan region does not augur well for the party as the Konkan region happens to be it’s the strongholds in Maharashtra besides Mumbai city.

The trigger for Kadam’s outburst has been that earlier this week, the Sena announced new party-bearers for the Ratnagiri district. The supporters of Kadam and his son, Dapoli MLA Yogesh Kadam, were shown the door and fresh faces were inducted instead of Kadam faction loyalists.

A visibly upset Kadam angrily clarified, “Speaking out against Anil Parab does not mean taking an anti-Shiv Sena stance… Parab and Uday Samant (Maharashtra Minister for Technical and Higher Education) were made ministers to strengthen the Sena and not to finish off senior party leaders, who have given their sweat and blood for the party.”

Tensions between Kadam and Parab, considered a close confidante of Thackeray, have been brewing for the last several months ever since Kadam was dropped from the cabinet following the 2019 Assembly election.

In October earlier this year, Kadam, a party old-timer, landed in a soup a local Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Vaibhav Khedekar and former NCP MLA Sanjay Kadam (both of whom are from Dapoli in Ratnagiri district in the Konkan region) released a series of audio clips purporting that the Shiv Sena leader had allegedly furnished ‘proof’ of irregularities against Parab to BJP leader Dr Kirit Somaiya with the help of an RTI activist.

Anil Parab has been targeted by Dr Kirit Somaiya over allegedly illegal constructions in the Konkan region and elsewhere following which the Shiv Sena leader had filed a defamation suit against the BJP leader seeking Rs. 100 crores in damages.

Kadam had vehemently denounced the audio clips as ‘doctored’ and said he would be moving the court against those who had attempted to defame him. He further clarified that he had not met Somaiya for nearly two decades and that his relations with his party colleague Parab was “extremely cordial”.

In a bid to paper over their alleged differences following the surfacing of the audio-clips in October, the Sena leader had remarked, “Anil Parab has been consistently helping my son (Yogesh Kadam) in the Konkan…our relationship is very close and we are family friends.”

In one of the audio-clips, a conversation allegedly between Ramdas Kadam and RTI activist Prasad Karve, the Sena leader is heard expressing approval on learning that the Lokayukta had ordered the demolition of Parab’s (apparently illegally constructed) office in Bandra.

The voice, alleged to be Kadam’s, is heard stating that Parab would now have to resign after this (demolition) incident as a police case and a probe was imminent, with the person believed to be Karve is heard informing the Sena leader that Somaiya would be filing the case against Parab.