Mumbai: The conviction in a criminal defamation case handed out to Sanjay Raut by a magistrate’s court on Thursday is only the latest step in the long-standing feud between the Shiv Sena MP and BJP’s former MP Kirit Somaiya.
The two motormouths have, over the years, filed numerous cases against one another and vowed to put each other behind the bars, with Raut’s potential second arrest giving Somaiya a lead in their ongoing vendetta.
Even though the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena were alliance partners for years, Somaiya and Raut have always had a strained relationship. The first discordant note was struck when, just ahead of the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, Somaiya referred to Uddhav Thackeray as the “mafia of Bandra”, referring to alleged scams in the civic body. Somaiya ramped up his attacks on the Shiv Sena after it broke away from the alliance with the BJP after the 2019 elections and Uddhav Thackeray became the head of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. A Rajya Sabha MP and Saamna’s editor, Raut was deputed by Thackeray to take Somaiya head-on in the media.
The direct and personal attack on Uddhav Thackeray cost Somaiya dearly. The two parties were still in alliance then. At the Shiv Sena’s insistence, Somaiya was denied a ticket from the Mumbai North East constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But even prior to that, on February 8, 2019 when the two parties held a press briefing at Worli to announce their alliance in the upcoming polls, Sena insisted that Somaiya be removed from the room. It was only recently that Somaiya was once again given organisational responsibility by the BJP. Last month, he was appointed as the head of a committee appointed for Maharashtra Assembly polls, a post he turned down to remind the party about the “insult” that had been meted out to him in the past.
{{/usCountry}}The direct and personal attack on Uddhav Thackeray cost Somaiya dearly. The two parties were still in alliance then. At the Shiv Sena’s insistence, Somaiya was denied a ticket from the Mumbai North East constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But even prior to that, on February 8, 2019 when the two parties held a press briefing at Worli to announce their alliance in the upcoming polls, Sena insisted that Somaiya be removed from the room. It was only recently that Somaiya was once again given organisational responsibility by the BJP. Last month, he was appointed as the head of a committee appointed for Maharashtra Assembly polls, a post he turned down to remind the party about the “insult” that had been meted out to him in the past.
{{/usCountry}}As unforgiving as his bete noire, Raut had held a press briefing at Sena Bhavan in February 2022 where he alleged that Somaiya, his son and another BJP colleague, Mohit Kamboj, were involved in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank scam and that they would soon be behind bars. He further said he had submitted “documentary proof” about this involvement to the enforcement directorate, which was probing the scam. He also alleged that Somaiya had been targeting city builders by filing complaints against them.
In his litany of accusations against Somaiya, Raut also accused him corruption in fund-raising for the conversion of INS Vikrant into a memorial. Somaiya strenuously defended himself against each of Raut’s allegations and has, so far, not faced any official probe.
For his part, the BJP leader levelled his own set of allegations against Raut, including misappropriation of funds in the erection of jumbo field hospitals during Covid. Somaiya alleged that the company that had been given the contract belonged to Sujit Patkar, a close aide of Raut’s. The BJP leader had also alleged that Uddhav Thackeray had taken certain decisions that favoured Maharashtra’s liquor industry only because Raut’s two daughters were partners in a wine making company.
Somaiya also filed complaints of corruption against other Shiv Sena leaders, including former mayor Kishori Pednekar in the khichadi and body bag procurement contracts issued during the pandemic. The other Shiv Sena leaders under Somaiya’s fire were Anil Parab, targeted for building an allegedly illegal resort in Dapoli, and Bhavana Gawli, who eventually moved to the Eknath Shinde camp.
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