MP Sanjay Raut on Friday asserted that his party remains resilient despite recent defections of six Lok Sabha MPs, saying that youth leader Aaditya Thackeray possesses the capability to take command of the party moving forward.
Raut's remarks come ahead of party chief Uddhav Thackeray's planned tour of the constituencies represented by the six party MPs who crossed over to the rival Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde earlier this week.
Speaking to PTI Videos, the Rajya Sabha member emphasised the need for a generational shift within the party's hierarchy, and said that the next generation should gradually take greater responsibility after senior leaders have served for 40 years.
He noted that young leaders must take command of the party, adding that Aaditya Thackeray is already doing so and will eventually do it officially.
"...He (Aaditya) has the capability, and we will welcome him," Raut said.
Aaditya, the elder son of Uddhav Thackeray, currently represents the Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai. He is the president of the party's youth wing, and had served as the state environment minister during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government that was in power from November 2019 to June 2022.
Raut chose not to address the defected leaders as 'rebels', arguing that this term should be reserved for freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev rather than politicians switching sides for money, power, and protection.
Alleging that the MPs sold themselves for crores of rupees, Raut maintained that the ground-level party cadre remained firmly with Uddhav Thackeray.
He described Uddhav Thackeray's tour as part of an outreach effort to directly explain the party's position to voters and workers in the constituencies of the MPs who defected.
The six Sena UBT MPs -- Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), Omprakash Rajenimbalkar (Dharashiv), Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi) and Nagesh Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli) -- joined the ruling Sena on June 22.
When asked if the body language of these six lawmakers showed that they were confident, Raut challenged them to face the public. "...We will see how confident they are after our tour...When you get Z-plus security after betrayal, your confidence increases," he said.
Asked why those who quit the Sena UBT always blame him for their decision, Raut said, "Because I am loyal to the party and Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology. They also tried to break me many times. I had tried to stop the earlier defections, including Eknath Shinde's, by warning them that power is temporary, and they should not commit the sin of breaking Balashaheb's party." Political splits are driven by the lure of money and fear of investigation agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Rajya Sabha member said. "Just give us ED and CBI for one hour, then we will show them," he said.
Asked about the slanging match between him and defected MP Sanjay Dina Patil over the past few days, Raut said not a single party worker joined Patil and others in their defection.
Political parties break, but it never happened in the past that a person who split a party seized its control, said Raut, apparently referring to Eknath Shinde obtaining legal recognition for his faction as the real Shiv Sena after the party split in 2022.
Asked about his stand on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Raut said constitutional matters like this should be debated, and a government with a majority has the right to take a decision on it.
The BJP-led Maharashtra government told the legislative assembly earlier this week that it was going to form a committee to examine the implementation of the UCC in the state.
Meanwhile, talking to reporters, Raut alleged that his party did not get a receipt for a Rs 1 crore donation it made to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
He also claimed that the party did not receive a receipt for a silver brick it donated to the trust.
"We haven't received the receipt for Rs 1 crore. When the trust was formed, we gave a cheque of Rs 1 crore. We gave the first silver brick weighing more than 25 kilograms," he said.
Raut's allegations came amid a controversy over the alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram temple surfaced on June 7. The Uttar Pradesh government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the request of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which submitted its preliminary report to the government.
An FIR was then registered based on the SIT's recommendations. Eight persons named in the FIR over the alleged embezzlement of donations have been arrested so far.
Raut alleged that the embezzled money was used to "buy" MPs and MLAs.
Attempts were made to shield the temple trust's general secretary Champat Rai and local BJP functionaries, the Rajya Sabha member alleged, claiming that they had purchased land at cheaper rates and sold it to the trust at higher rates.
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