Sada Sarvankar (left) made the allegations against Sanjay Raut at an event in Kolhapur on Sunday. (X/PTI)
While Sanjay Raut was unavailable for comments, Ambadas Danve, Shiv Sena leader and leader of opposition in legislative council, said, “Sada Sarvankar is making these allegations after 20-25 years. It would have been better if he had told this then itself.”
Sada Sarvankar, MLA of the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) faction from Mumbai, on Sunday said that Sanjay Raut, executive editor of Shiv Sena UBT mouthpiece Saamana, had “asked him to set the house of then Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi on fire, if he wanted to a ticket for the Legislative Assembly”. Sarvankar also alleged that Raut demanded Rs 10 crore from him in lieu for the candidature. Despite repeated attempts, Raut was unavailable for a comment.
Joshi’s residence in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park area was attacked by a few Shiv Sena workers in September 2009, ahead of the state assembly elections, when Sarvankar was denied a ticket. Later, Sarvankar joined the Congress before returning to the Sena fold after a few years.
Speaking at an event in Kolhapur, Sarvankar said, “When Manohar Joshi was the Chief Minister, I was not given a ticket for the assembly elections. When I asked Joshi about it, he told me to visit ‘Matoshree’ (residence of the Thackeray family) and ask for a ticket. When I went to Matoshree, I was told that my ticket was cut by Joshi. Milind Narvekar, a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray, told me that you should attack Joshi’s house. Meanwhile, I got a call from Raut, who told me to set Joshi’s house on fire using petrol. We followed the orders of Matoshree and attacked Joshi’s house.”
“As I could not pay Rs 10 crore, all attempts were made to give the ticket to the other leader of the party, Adesh Bandekar. Such acts never happened when Balasaheb was there. After forming the government with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, Uddhav Thackeray wanted to make his son Aaditya a bigger leader. That was the time when Thackeray didn’t even give time and never even looked at his own MLAs. That’s why Shiv Sainiks supported Eknath Shinde and his leadership.”
Reacting to the claims, Ambadas Danve, Shiv Sena leader and leader of opposition in legislative council of Maharashtra, said, “Sarvankar is making these allegations after 20-25 years. He joined the Congress and then again came to Shiv Sena. Now, he is with the traitors. It would have been better if he had told this then itself.”
