Amit Shah asked Shinde to merge his Shiv Sena with the BJP, claims Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah allegedly asked Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde to merge his Shiv Sena with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray or UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed on Sunday. He also said that Mr. Shah had declined Mr. Shinde’s demand of considering him for the Chief Minister’s position. In his column ‘Rokhthok’ in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana, Mr. Raut claimed to have the details of an alleged secret meeting between Mr. Shinde and Mr. Shah in Delhi recently.

Mr. Raut lashed out at Mr. Shinde for questioning the “Hindutva” of party chief Uddhav Thackeray.

“Mr. Eknath Shinde is an amazing person. He questions Uddhav Thackeray on his Hinduism for not taking the holy dip in the Kumbh, but he does not have the courage to ask the same question to respected RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] Chief Mohan Bhagwat. Is the boss of BJP not a Hindu?” he asked in a post on social media platform X.

“I have not seen photos of RSS chiefs taking the holy bath in Sangam. Whether it is Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, Guru Golwalkar, Balasaheb Deoras, Rajju Bhaiyya and K.S. Sudarshan, none were seen at the Kumbh. I have not seen photos of Balasaheb Thackeray in Kumbh or for that matter Veer Savarkar. However, I have seen the photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking holy bath at Kumbh Mela, but I have not seen his photos of visiting Kumbh before he became the Prime Minister. This is just a publicity stunt. Our Shiv Sena (UBT) does not believe in fake Hindutva and publicity stunts,” Mr. Raut said, speaking to journalists on Sunday.

He further asked how many of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s Cabinet colleagues or MLAs (from the BJP and Shiv Sena) had gone to the Maha Kumbh.

Mr. Raut’s criticism came as a response to Mr. Shinde’s sharp jibe directed at Mr. Uddhav Thackeray last week. “Those who skipped Maha Kumbh should be asked why they skipped it. They keep saying they are Hindus. Balasaheb Thackeray proudly gave the slogan ‘garv se kaho hum Hindu hain’ (proclaim proudly that we are Hindu) but now they fear calling themselves Hindu and call him (Balasaheb Thackeray) the ‘Hindu hriday samrat’ (emperor of the heart),” he said.

Mr. Thackeray reacted to the dig. “I respect the Ganga but what is the use of taking a dip in it after taking 50 khokas (crores of money)? Here, you betray Maharashtra, take 50 khokas, and then you take a dip. This does not wash anyone’s sin. How will the tag of being a betrayer go even after numerous dips?” he said.

Shinde’s ‘secret’ meeting

Meanwhile, Mr. Raut in his Sunday column in Saamana claimed that Mr. Shinde had had a secret meeting with Mr. Shah in Pune on February 22 to vent his complaints against Mr. Fadnavis. The column claimed the meeting took place early in the morning at West Inn Hotel in Koregaon Park where Mr. Shah had been staying.

Mr. Raut in his column alleged that Mr. Shinde could not get over not being the Chief Minister any more, and had complained that he was not receiving his due in the new government. “I have no prestige left in the government. I was the Chief Minister till yesterday, for which I dedicated my life by making big decisions, but the current CM is overturning all the decisions taken by me during my governance. The election was won under my leadership,” the column said, ‘attributing’ these feelings to Mr. Shinde. It added that the meeting yielded no results and that the Deputy Chief Minister was rebuked for his repeated claims to the Chief Minister’s post.

“Mr. Shah told him that the BJP had over 125 MLAs and rightly deserved to lead the government. He offered to merge Shiv Sena with the BJP if he wishes to claim the CM’s post to which Mr. Shinde has shown his willingness to merge the robbed Shiv Sena into the BJP for the CM’s chair,“ the column read.

“If Mr. Shinde did not have a secret meeting with Mr. Shah, then he should publicly deny that and clarify his stand instead of speaking in riddles. Even Mr. Fadnavis had all the details of the meeting,” Mr. Raut said, talking to reporters about the column.

On the Maharashtra Legislature’s Budget session, set to begin on March 3, Mr. Raut said the Shiv Sena (UBT) would stake its claim for the post of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the State Assembly. “We have finalised the name. Even if our numbers are less, there is no law or provision in the Constitution that says the House should function without an LoP,“ Mr. Raut said.