Campaigning for the Maharashtra local body elections wound down on Monday amid a growing rift in the Mahayuti ranks. Members of the ruling coalition have been at loggerheads over the past few days — making public statements against each other and levelling voter bribery charges.
‘Situation is not good’
Matters escalated over the weekend as the police registered an FIR against Shiv Sena MLA Nilesh Rane for “trespassing” into the house of a BJP supporter. He claimed to have found bags of cash meant for distribution to voters ahead of civic polls. His brother and BJP leader Nitesh Rane had later rejected the allegations — arguing that many political workers had legitimate business income and keeping cash at home should not be misconstrued.
“I don’t stand with a wrong person, even if the person is from my party. But the situation of Rane versus Rane is not good. We have to introspect about this after the elections,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told PTI.
‘Entire Maharashtra will ask Shinde…’
Nitesh Rane also noted that Shiv Sena workers had campaigned for the rival party faction led by Uddhav Thackeray in Sindhudurg district ahead of the local body polls. He claimed that this raised doubts about the Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rebelling against the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government due to “injustice”. He insisted that the entirety of Maharashtra would now ask Shinde whether there was ‘any meaning left to his so-called rebellion’.
“Eknath Shinde had claimed he witnessed injustice to Shiv Sena workers under then chief minister and Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray, hence, he rebelled. If he rebelled then, why are his party workers campaigning for Sandesh Parkar, a leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and candidate in the Kankavli municipal council elections?” Nitesh Rane asked while speaking to reporters in Sindhudurg district on Saturday evening.
(With inputs from agencies)
