More than 14 months after the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress joined hands to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, Union Home Minister Amit Shah broke his silence on the subject, saying that “Had the BJP had followed in your path when Devendra Fadnavis was chief minister, your party (Shiv Sena) would not have survived.’’
Hitting back at Amit Shah, without mentioning his name, Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that on earlier occasions when people made such predictions about Shiv Sena, it came up even stronger than earlier.
Raut took to Twitter and wrote, "In 1975 Rajni patel and in the 90s similarly (I guess Murli Doera said) that Shivsena will be wiped off ..Again in 2012 Prithviraj Chavan said the same thing and on both the occasions Shivsena came up even more stronger than earlier (sic) !"
In addition to this tweet, Raut has also posted a couplet in Hindi -"Tufan jyada ho to kashtiya bhi dub jati hai, aur ghamand jyada ho to hastiya dub jati hai."
Shah was speaking at the inauguration of the SSPM Medical College at Kudal, in Sindhudurg, founded by a trust chaired by former Maharashtra chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Narayan Rane.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Assembly polls in over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post with the BJP, and later forged an alliance with the NCP and Congress to come to power.
Thackeray had claimed that Shah, who was then BJP president, had assured at his 'Matoshree' bungalow in Mumbai that the CM's post would be shared by the two parties, and the BJP reneged on the promise.
It is being claimed that the BJP broke the promise, Shah said, adding his party honours the promises it makes.
"We don't speak white lies. We are the ones who honour commitments. In Bihar, we had said that even if the BJP gets more seats, Nitish Kumar will continue to be the CM," Shah said.
Slamming Thackeray, Shah said the Shiv Sena leader addressed poll rallies with him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In the poll posters of Shiv Sena candidates, Modi's pictures were bigger than Thackeray's, Shah said. "We sought votes for the BJP-Sena alliance led by Fadnavis. Why didn't you speak out then? You just garnered votes in Modi's name," Shah said.
Apart from Raut, Sena's Arvind Sawant said the fact that Shah took a year and a half to claim that he had not made any promise (to Thackeray) on sharing chief ministers post raises suspicions.
"Uddhav Thackeray spoke about this (promise) on many occasions - even in the state legislature - but Shah had remained silent. After the Assembly election results, Shah went to Haryana for government formation talks but remained silent on Maharashtra's political developments," the Sena leader said.
The Thackeray family is known in Maharashtra for honouring promises made, he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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