Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said that despite six Lok Sabha MPs leaving the party recently, his party remains strong and said that young leader Aditya Thackeray has the ability to take the party forward. Raut's comments came ahead of party chief Uddhav Thackeray's visit to the areas represented by the six party MPs who joined the opposition Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde earlier this week.
Speaking to PTI Videos, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut He stressed the need for generational change in the party hierarchy and said that after senior leaders serve for 40 years, the next generation should gradually take more responsibility.
He said that young leaders should take command of the party and said that Aditya Thackeray is already doing so and will eventually do so officially. Raut said, “…he (Aditya) has the ability, and we will welcome him.”
Uddhav Thackeray's elder son Aditya is currently an MP from Worli assembly constituency of Mumbai. He is the president of the party's youth wing, and has been the state environment minister during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which was in power from November 2019 to June 2022.
Raut did not call the defector leaders 'rebels', he said that this word should be for freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev and not for the leaders who switched sides for money, power and security. Alleging that the MPs sold themselves for crores of rupees, Raut said the party's grassroots cadre stood firmly with Uddhav Thackeray.
He described Uddhav Thackeray's visit as part of an effort to explain the party's position directly to the voters and workers in the constituencies of the MPs who had defected.
Six Sena (UBT) MPs — Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), Omprakash Rajenimbalkar (Dharashiv), Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Bhausaheb Wakchore (Shirdi) and Nagesh Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli) — joined the ruling Sena on June 22.
When asked whether the body language of these six MPs showed that they were confident, Raut challenged them to face the public. He said, “…we will see after our visit how confident they are…when you get Z-plus security after a betrayal, your confidence increases.”
Asked why people leaving Shiv Sena (UBT) always blame him for their decision, Raut said, "Because I am loyal to the party and Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology. He also tried to break me many times. I had tried to stop earlier defections, including Eknath Shinde's defection, by warning him that power is temporary, and he should not commit the sin of breaking Balasaheb's party."
The Rajya Sabha MP said that political divisions are caused by greed for money and fear of investigating agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He said, “Just give us ED and CBI for an hour, then we will show them.” When asked about the ongoing debate between him and defection MP Sanjay Dina Patil in the last few days, Raut said that not a single party worker was involved in the defection of Patil and others.
Raut said that political parties break, but it has never happened before that the person who broke a party took control of it. He was probably referring to Eknath Shinde, who got his group legal recognition as the real Shiv Sena after the breakup of the party in 2022.
Asked about his stand on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Raut said such constitutional matters should be debated, and the government with majority has the right to take a decision on it. The BJP-led Maharashtra government told the Assembly earlier this week that it is going to form a committee to examine the implementation of UCC in the state.
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