Shiv Sena open to leaving MVA if rebels return: Raut

Indicating a shift in stand, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said his party is open to consider quitting Maharashtra’s ruling alliance MVA if the rebel MLAs camping in Assam return and discuss their grievances with CM Uddhav Thackeray, while coalition allies NCP and the Congress vowed support to the beleaguered governing bloc and asserted its majority can only be determined in the Assembly and not outside.

A day after Thackeray made an emotional appeal to rebel MLAs of his party and offered to resign in a bid to placate them, his trusted aide Raut indicated the Shiv Sena is ready to consider leaving the MVA headed by it, a demand put forward by Shinde who has dubbed the three-party bloc as an “unnatural” alliance.

“You say you are real Shiv Sainiks and will not quit the party. We are ready to consider your demand provided you come back to Mumbai within 24 hours and discuss the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray. Your demand will be considered positively. Don’t write letters on Twitter and WhatsApp,” Raut, who is the party’s chief spokesperson, told reporters here.

Raut’s comments that the Shiv Sena was open to quitting the party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) created

We are ready to consider your demand provided you come back to Mumbai within 24 hours and discuss the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP

a flutter as the NCP and the Congress moved quickly and sought to downplay the remarks and declared support to the alliance.

Addressing a press conference, Sharad Pawar said the fate of the MVA government will be decided on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, where the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition will prove its majority in a trust vote.

Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, claiming that Eknath Shinde took the step of going against party leadership as Sena MLAs, who faced “humilitation” for last two-and-a-half years, persuaded him to do so.

While the Shiv Sena legislators had no access to the chief minister, the Congress and NCP, which are the “real opponents” of the Sena, were getting all the attention, he claimed in the letter, dated June 22. The Sena shares power with the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra.

Shirsat, the MLA from Aurangabad (West) Assembly constituency, in the letter claimed that despite the Shiv Sena being in power and having its own Chief Minister, the coterie around Thackeray never allowed them access to ‘Varsha’, the CM’s official residence. “There was no question of going to ‘Mantralaya’, the state secretariat, because the Chief Minister never came there,” he said.

The letter was posted by Shinde on his Twitter handle, claiming these were the sentiments of the Sena MLAs.

Shinde is currently camping with some rebel MLAs in Assam’s Guwahati city, plunging the Sena-led Maharashtra government into a crisis.

In the letter, Shirsat said Eknath Shinde opened doors for the party MLAs to listen to their grievances, issues about development work in their constituencies and related fund, and problems with allies Congress and NCP.