Sena treated like slave in Fadnavis govt: Raut

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party was treated as a “slave” in the former Devendra Fadnavis-led government. Raut made the statement while speaking to party officebearers and workers in Jalgaon on Saturday. Following Raut’s statement, BJP shot back, asking why it did not pull out of the government then. Sena shared power with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) between 2014 and 2019.

Raut made these remarks in an internal meeting of party office-bearers in Jalgaon in north Maharashtra on Saturday. The video clip of his address to the party workers was shown by Marathi news channels. “In the five years (2014-2019) attempts were made to finish off Shiv Sena, although they were in power with our support,”raut said in the meeting. “We were like slaves, secondary people. The situation was quite bad.. The fortunes of Shiv Sena have changed now..,”raut was heard saying in his address.

This isn’t the first time a strong statement against BJP came from Sena. In 2016, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had said that his party “rotted” in an alliance with BJP. The bickering and unease between the two former allies was visible in the previous Bjp-led government.

Raut did not react to the news reports.

Reacting to his remarks, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar, who was finance minister in the Fadnavis government, said that the statement is insulting Sena chief and not against Fadnavis.

“Will Hinduhriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray’s heirs become slaves for power? In a democracy, nobody is a king nor a slave. Did it take five years to realise their self-respect? They claimed to carry resignation letters with them, so why didn’t they resign if they were treated as slaves,” Mungantiwar said.