Amid defections, Sanjay Raut signals bigger Uddhav Sena role for Aaditya Thackeray

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said his party remained strong despite the splits it had suffered and said Aaditya Thackeray had the capability to lead it. He said the younger generation should gradually take greater responsibility and command of the party.

Speaking to news agency PTI ahead of party chief Uddhav Thackeray's planned tour of the constituencies represented by six party MPs who recently joined the rival Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Raut alleged that they switched loyalties for money, power and protection. He said the tour was meant to directly explain the party's position to voters and workers in those constituencies.

Asked about Aaditya Thackeray's role in the party, Raut said, "The next generation should gradually take greater responsibility. For how many years will we continue to work? We have been working for 40 years. Young leaders must take the command of the party, and he (Aaditya) has been doing it. He will do it officially too, he has the capability, and we will welcome him."

Raut said the leaders who left the Uddhav Thackeray-led party were not "rebels" in the real sense of the term, and argued that the word should be used for freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, not politicians who crossed over for money and power. He alleged that the six MPs had "sold themselves for crores of rupees" and claimed that the Sena cadre remained with Uddhav Thackeray.

When asked if the body language of the six MPs showed confidence, 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 Sena (UBT) blamed 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."

He said political splits were driven by the lure of money and fear of investigation agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation, adding, "Just give us ED and CBI for one hour, then we will show them."

On Mumbai North-East MP Sanjay Dina Patil, who was among the six lawmakers who joined the Shinde-led Sena and with whom Raut had a slanging match over the past few days, the Rajya Sabha member said not a single party worker had joined Patil and the others in their defection.

He also said that while political parties did break, it had never happened in the past that a person who split a party seized its control, in an apparent reference to Shinde's faction getting legal recognition as the real Shiv Sena after the 2022 split.

Asked about the Uniform Civil Code, Raut said constitutional matters such as this should be debated and that a government with a majority had the right to take a decision on it. Earlier this week, the BJP-led Maharashtra government told the legislative assembly that it would 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 Janmbhoomi 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 after the Uttar Pradesh government set up a Special Investigation Team to probe allegations of embezzlement of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The FIR in the case named Ram Shankar Yadav alias Tinnu Yadav, said to be a former driver of the trust's general secretary Champat Rai.

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, and claimed that attempts were made to shield Champat Rai and local BJP functionaries, alleging that they had bought land at lower rates and sold it to the trust at higher rates.

Raut's remarks covered the party's leadership, the outreach planned by Uddhav Thackeray after the latest defections, his stand on the UCC, and his allegations linked to donations made to the Ram temple trust and the ongoing probe in Uttar Pradesh.

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