Merely two days after giving his consent for being nominated from the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) quota to the state legislative council, Swabhimai Shetkari Sanghatana founder Raju Shetti said he will prefer to maintain his relationship with the old colleagues instead of going to the upper house. The trigger was the strong resentment from the SSS leaders on Shetti's move to meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar and give his nod to be nominated from its quota to the upper house. His associates had raised serious questions over Shetti's decision.
In an emotional feed on Facebook, Shetti, who lost the Lok Sabha election from the Hatkalangda seat to the Shiv Sena nominee, said he has been severely hurt by the outburst by close associates against his decision to accept the NCP offer. “I have seen ups and downs in life. Also, survived attacks from various quarters. The relationship among all SSS activists is thick and if it will be spoiled because of my decision, then I don’t want to be nominated to the upper house,’’ he added. He resorted to Facebook after SSS political affairs committee chief Savkar Madnaik and party president Jalandhar Patil expressed serious reservations over Shetti’s decision.
Shetti, who has been at the forefront to aggressively take up farmers’ issues, argued that the legislative council is one of the platforms to pursue these issues, but it is not an ultimate goal. He informed that he chose to remain absent at the political affairs committee to decide on the NCP offer as his name was to be discussed.
Shetti has switched off his mobile and clearly said in his Facebook feed he would not discuss the issue with anybody.
