Mumbai: Launching a veiled attack on the Centre after the ED summoned his wife, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday alleged Central agencies were being used to "destabilise" the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra and claimed BJP leaders had been in touch with him for over a year to effect this plan.
Speaking to reporters, he alleged that Central agencies were being used as "weapons" against family members of (BJP's) political opponents who cannot be won over.
Raut said BJP leaders had a list of 22 MLAs of the Congress and the NCP with them "who will be made to resign under the pressure of the Central investigating agencies".
Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress are constituents of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which was formed in November 2019 after the Sena and the BJP fell out over sharing the post of chief minister following the Assembly elections.
"Some BJP leaders have been contacting me since the last one year, saying they have made all the arrangements to destabilise the Maharashtra government. They have been pressurising and threatening me not to support the government.
"They told me that they have a list of 22 MLAs of Congress and NCP who will be forced to resign under the pressure of Central investigating agencies," Raut said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Varsha Raut for questioning in the PMC Bank money laundering case on December 29, officials had said on Sunday.
Alleging that ED has woken up after 10 years, Sanjay Raut said: "We are middle-class people. My wife had taken a loan from a friend 10 years ago to purchase a house. Details have been given to the Income Tax (department) and also mentioned in my Rajya Sabha affidavit. The ED woke up to this deal after 10 years."
The Sena leader further added he has a file on BJP which contains 121 names and he would soon give it to the ED. "There are so many names that the ED will have to work for five years," he added.