Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed that fearing arrest in the alleged phone-tapping case, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis engineered a split in the Shiv Sena.
Asserting that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre will be defeated in the Lok Sabha polls, he said, adding that the new dispensation will probe cases against BJP leaders and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde which were closed.
Raut said the probe was on in different cases against BJP leaders Pravin Darekar, Prasad Lad, Ashish Shelar, and Girish Mahajan when the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was in power from 2019-2022.
"(If) you can arrest our leaders, then can't we touch leaders of your political party? Devendra Fadnavis faced a serious charge of tapping the phones of opponents. The fear that he could be arrested and face conviction led to him engineer a split in Shiv Sena," Raut claimed.
The Shiv Sena split in June 2022 after a majority of party MLAs led by Eknath Shinde rebelled against party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Last year, the Election Commission as well as the state legislative assembly speaker recognized the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the bow and arrow symbol.
Fadnavis, who was the chief minister from 2014-2019, also helmed the home department. The then State Intelligence Department (SID) chief Rashmi Shukla was accused of illegally tapping the phones of opposition leaders and also faced charges.
In September last year, the Bombay High Court quashed two FIRs against Shukla, who is now the state's Director General of Police.