Shiv Sena MPs Sanjay Raut, who was the party’s face after it broke ties with BJP after 2019 assembly elections to join hands with NCP and Congress to form the MVA government, has been taking on the rebels and BJP after the defection of 40 legislators and fall of the MVA government. For Shiv Sena and party president Uddhav Thackeray, Raut’s detention is a major jolt as he was defending its case despite being under ED’s radar. It was a setback for the Thackeray-led faction especially when it faces challenge from the Shinde camp which has claimed being a real party and also staked claim on the party's poll symbol bow and arrow. Thackeray will miss Raut for his tirade and punches against BJP in particular and it will be difficult for him to find a suitable alternative at a time when the party’s survival is at stake.
Raut’s 10 am press briefing became a daily feature in which he used to defend MVA and Thackerays before the Shiv Sena-led government collapsed. Thereafter, he stepped up attacks against Eknath Shinde after he staged a rebellion and also BJP for engineering the split. He put up a brave front despite being attacked and ridiculed by the rebels and BJP. Raut, who was elected for the fourth time in a row to the Rajya Sabha in June 10 elections when party’s another nominee Sanjay Pawar lost, had described BJP's victory on three Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra as the "mandate of horse trading", and accused the Election Commission (EC) of siding with the opposition party, which he claimed "put pressure" on the poll panel. ‘’Some horses were up for sale at a higher price and shifted sides despite assurance of their votes to our candidate,’’ Raut said and added that the defeat of Shiv Sena's second candidate Sanjay Pawar was not a setback.
After the state council elections in which BJP’s fifth nominee won and Congress lost is its second candidate and the subsequent rebellion by Shinde-led legislators, Raut had hinted at the dissolution of the state assembly. Despite legislators and ministers joining hands with Shinde, it was Raut who in his daily briefings sounded that MVA would survive with a hope that some of the rebels would return to the party fold. However, after Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn in as CM and DCM, Raut claimed that the government was formed illegally and the repeatedly claimed that the government will not survive.
ED and other probe agencies used with oblique motive
Raut had repeatedly denied wrong doings but accused BJP for the deployment of central probe agencies to silence the opponents. In February this year, Raut had in a letter addressed to the Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu had alleged that ‘’Enforcement Directorate and other central agencies were being used with the “oblique motive” of toppling democratically elected governments.’’ He said the letter was 'just a trailer' and vowed to expose how some ED personnel were allegedly running a 'criminal syndicate of the BJP'. Raut accused the ED of threatening people who sold land to him and his family about 17 years ago and in 2012-13, forcing them (the sellers) into issuing statements against him. He said the decorators and other vendors roped in for his daughter’s wedding function were also being “intimidated and threatened so as to extract statements” that they received Rs 50 lakh in cash from him.
He alleged that the ED and other agencies had unlawfully picked up 28 people in these connections so far. “I, with all due humility, wish to state that I am not scared, nor am I going to bow down, and I will continue to speak the truth, both in the House and outside,” he added.
He also alleged that a few people were issuing orders to the ED in Mumbai on whom to be summoned or tortured. “I appeal to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and he knows what I have got to say,” Raut added.
Without naming anyone, Raut also said that “you won’t be able to go to Nagpur if we take you on. The ED will pay the price for it and I am ready to pay any price whatsoever for the country and for the agency’s reputation,” he added.
On July 21, Raut was one of the signatories with other opposition party leaders to criticise the Central government for unleashing a "relentless vendetta against political opponents" through misuse of investigative agencies by targeting prominent leaders of various parties. They had issued a joint statement after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering probe.
Lashing out at the Centre over the misuse of probe agencies, the Opposition in a joint statement said that they will intensify their fight against the "anti-people Modi Sarkar".
