Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant joins Eknath Shinde-led rebel camp

Samant, who was unreachable since Sunday morning, reached Guwahati via a chartered plane from Surat with three more passengers, including his personal secretary and a Shiv Sena worker from Thane.

In a major embarrassment for the Shiv Sena, higher and technical education minister Uday Samant joined the rebel camp led by urban development minister Eknath Shinde at Guwahati. This defection has led to the number of Sena legislators with Shinde rising to 39. Ironically, the Shinde camp now has more Sena ministers than chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Samant is the seventh Shiv Sena minister to join the rebels. (HT PHOTO)

Samant, who was unreachable since Sunday morning, reached Guwahati via a chartered plane from Surat with three more passengers, including his personal secretary and a Shiv Sena worker from Thane.

Samant is the seventh Shiv Sena minister to join the rebels. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is left with just one minister from the party who is MLA, his son Aaditya Thackeray, who is the environment and protocol minister.

The other two Sena ministers with Uddhav are transport minister Anil Parab, and industries minister Subhash Desai, who opted out of contesting for his seat in the state legislative council. Both Parab and Desai are MLCs. Independent Shankarrao Gadakh is also a minister (for water and soil conservation) from the Shiv Sena’s quota. One berth is vacant after the resignation of forest minister Sanjay Rathod.

So far, five cabinet ministers (Shinde, Samant, Gulabrao Patil, Sandipan Bhumre, Dadaji Bhuse) and two ministers of state (Abdul Sattar and Shambhuraj Desai) have thrown in their lot with the Shinde camp. Rajendra Patil Yadravkar and Omprakash (Bacchu) Kadu, who are independents, and have been made ministers of state from the Shiv Sena’s quota, have also joined Shinde.

Samant’s defection comes as a surprise as he is close to ‘Matoshree’—the Thackeray family residence at Bandra East—and was given charge of an important portfolio despite being a newcomer to the Shiv Sena.

He was elected to the state legislative assembly from Ratnagiri for two successive terms beginning in 2004 as a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and was also a minister of state in the erstwhile Congress-NCP government. Samant, however, joined the Sena before the 2014 assembly polls and was appointed as the chairman of the MHADA in 2018.

In 2019, Samant, who has substantial business interests, was re-elected to the assembly for his fourth term and was made a cabinet minister over-riding the claims of party veterans from the district and the Konkan region like Bhaskar Jadhav, the MLA from Guhagar. This had led to much heartburn within the party. He was also made the guardian minister for Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, where the Shiv Sena has a lot at stake politically.

A source from the Shinde camp said that they were working on options to stake claims to form the government in Maharashtra with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “We are staking claim to be the original Shiv Sena,” said the source, adding that some more cross-overs were expected on Monday.

A legislator from Mumbai who shifted loyalties to Shinde, said they planned to leave Guwahati on Tuesday after legal issues were resolved. On Monday, the Supreme Court (SC) will hear pleas by Shinde and Mahad MLA Bharatseth Gogawale, who has been appointed as the chief whip of the defecting group, challenging the disqualification notices issued by deputy speaker Narhari Zhirwal to 16 MLAs including Shinde.

“We do not plan to merge into any other political party. Our position is that we are the original Shiv Sena,” the MLA asserted.