Mumbai: Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane has said Shiv Sena workers campaigning for a rival Sena (UBT) candidate in Sindhudurg raised doubts about Deputy CM Eknath Shinde's past claims that he rebelled against the then MVA government due to "injustice".
Rane said the situation raised serious doubts about the justification of Shinde's rebellion in 2022. Notably, the BJP leader's elder brother, Nilesh Rane, is an MLA from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
"Eknath Shinde had claimed he witnessed injustice to Shiv Sena workers under then chief minister and Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray, hence, he rebelled. If he rebelled then, why are his party workers campaigning for Sandesh Parkar, a leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and candidate in the Kankavli municipal council elections?" Nitesh Rane asked while speaking to reporters in Sindhudurg district on Saturday evening.
Not only the people of Sindhudurg, but the entire Maharashtra will ask Shinde whether there is any meaning left to his so-called rebellion, the BJP leader said.
The latest outburst against Shinde came at the fag end of the campaigning for the first phase of local body polls, scheduled for December 2, marked by shifting political alliances and one-upmanship bids by leaders of the ruling Mahayuti allies - BJP and Shiv Sena.
Shinde engineered a split in the undivided Shiv Sena in June 2022, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
He then allied with the BJP and became the chief minister, with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as deputy CM.
In February 2024, Maharashtra legislative assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled that Shinde's faction was the "real Shiv Sena".
After the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 2024 assembly polls, Shinde resigned from the post of chief minister in December last year, and Fadnavis became the CM.
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