After winning the trust vote on Monday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday made a major disclosure that as far as going back to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena for him is concerned it is a closed chapter. He has completely ruled out the possibility of 'ghar wapsi' in the event of a fresh appeal. Thackeray has already said that he does not consider Shinde as the Shiv Sena CM while expressing serious displeasure over the coup staged by him and 39 others. Shinde has claimed that his faction was the original Shiv Sena.
‘’I don’t think they (Thackeray faction) expects us to return to them especially after the way they are accusing us. We were expelled from the party and later they sent people for discussion. Our statues have been burnt and are being defamed. They continue to criticise us,’’ said Shinde.
To a question on whether he talked to Uddhav Thackeray before going to Surat, Shinde said, "I talked to him and told him I didn't know if I would come back. We approached him five times and explained him our stand but we did not succeed.’’ "I did not take the decision only because I was sidelined but those 25-30 MLAs were worried about getting re-elected due to the issues faced by them in their constituency. This was because the constituent parties started giving strength to their defeated candidate and started harassing our people. False cases were filed against our Shiv Sainiks and they were deported. Despite being innocent, some Shiv Sainiks had to face actions under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act,’’ he explained.
Shinde on his part claimed that he and other legislators on at least five occasions had told Thackeray to break an alliance with NCP and Congress as it would further damage the prospects of Shiv Sena and it will also make it difficult for the legislators to get themselves elected.
‘’What did Shiv Sena, Shiv Sainiks get? What did Shiv Sainiks gain from this power? We had told our party chief that this should change. In the end, the alliance with NCP and Congress will not be beneficial for Shiv Sena. When the Chief Minister was ours, Shiv Sena was thrown at the fourth position in Municipalities and Nagar Panchayats. If it continued like this, the future of these 30-40 MLAs would have been threatened. That is why I told the MLAs to take a decision,’’ said Shinde.
"It simply came to our notice then. The trouble of the MLAs was increasing day by day. We even tried to take it up with the party chief and asked him whether we (Shiv Sena) can form an alliance with BJP again. But we did not succeed in that, ”said Shinde.
Shinde strongly defended the decision by 40 legislators including himself to join hands with BJP and form the government saying that he did not repent for his decision. Shinde also scoffed at the reports that Fadnavis will have remote control in the functioning of the new government saying that he and Fadnavis are good friends and will run the government without any personal agenda.
