14 of ministers in ex-Maharashtra CM’s cabinet faced allegations, but none resigned: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena’s Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the current political situation in Maharashtra

Shiv Sena’s Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the current political situation in Maharashtra. Raut said that 14 ministers in the previous BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government faced serious allegations, but none of them were shunted out. They continued to hold power by not resigning from their positions, he said. Raut alleged that a conspiracy was going on “behind the curtains” to bring the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government down by “misusing central investigation agencies”, but the Opposition will not succeed in doing so.

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In his column in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Raut said, “State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said that in the past 36 days, two ministers from the state had to resign from their posts and indicated that a few more will be shunted out. Our [MVA] ministers resigned on moral grounds, but in the erstwhile Fadnavis government, 14 ministers who faced serious allegations chose to stick to power.”

Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Anil Deshmukh, who was handling the home portfolio, had resigned on April 5 after the high court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe allegations of corruption against him.

On February 28, Sanjay Rathod from the Sena, who was handling the forest department, resigned from the ministerial council after his name was dragged in a suicide case of a Tiktok star. “The Opposition [BJP] is leaving no stone unturned to malign the image of MVA government. It has become necessary to give them a befitting reply or else people will start believing their lies after a few days,” Raut wrote.

“Attempts are on to dislodge the government. The [BJP-led] central government too is involved in it. But there is no possibility of it happening. Soon after HC’s decision directing a CBI inquiry into the allegations against the then home minister [Deshmukh], Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad raised the issue of morality and slammed chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. But their [BJP] morality is only to create trouble against the governments led by opposition [non-BJP] parties by misusing central probe agencies,” he said.

In his response, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said the allegations against BJP ministers were of political nature. “As always, he [Raut] is misleading people as the facts are different from what he claims. The allegations made against the then home minister [Anil Deshmukh] was by former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh and the high court ordered a CBI inquiry against him. There was a public outcry against Rathod. In contrast, there were political allegations against BJP ministers in Fadnavis government,” he said.