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Shinde faction MLA grilled on jumping ships
NAGPUR In the recently concluded cross-questioning of Sunil Prabhu, chief whip of Shiv Sena (UBT), the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani tried to establish that Shinde was not the rebel as he had the support of a majority of the MLAs who had ideological differences with Uddhav Thackeray
NAGPUR In the recently concluded cross-questioning of Sunil Prabhu, chief whip of Shiv Sena (UBT), the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani tried to establish that Shinde was not the rebel as he had the support of a majority of the MLAs who had ideological differences with Uddhav Thackeray. As the session resumed at the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur, on Thursday, Devadatt Kamat, counsel representing the Thackeray faction, countered this claim.
In his cross-examination of Shinde faction MLA Dilip Lande (of Chandivali constituency), Kamat focussed on his jumping ships several times, the question of Shinde faction approving the NCP led by Ajit Pawar in the Sena-BJP alliance and the appointments of Eknath Shinde and other leaders in various positions by Thackeray. (See box.)
Kamat will examine seven witnesses, including Yogesh Kadam, MP Rahul Shewale and Bharat Gogawale, over the next four days, after which both sides will begin their arguments.
Lande was among the MLAs who had seconded the resolution passed on June 22, a day after the split in the party to change Shinde as the party’s group leader in the legislative assembly. Kamat asked him if the Shinde faction was following the ideology established by the party’s founder Bal Thackeray. He then asked if Lande was an ardent believer of the late Sena founder’s ideology, why did he exit the party?
This spurred Lande to use phrases such as ‘Hinduhriday Samrat’, ‘Sarsenapati’, ‘in the interest of Marathi manoos’, ‘Hindutvawadi’ repeatedly in connection with the late leader. Much time was spent in translations and transcriptions, so much so that speaker Rahul Narwekar intervened to say, “Shivaji Parkvaril bhashan devu naka. (Do not give speeches akin to those in Shivaji Park.)”
On the issue of the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP’s comfort with the ruling alliance, Lande said Pawar “had approved Sena-BJP ideology and hence he could walk out of the party to join the alliance government”. Lande however ducked all questions circling around his quitting the party in 2005, when his mentor was alive.
He subsequently emphasised that the Shinde faction broke away from the party claiming that most of the MLAs were disagreement with Uddhav Thackeray’s decision of joining hands with Congress and NCP to form the MVA government in 2019. In that context Kamat asked Lande: “If you were against the three-party coalition, did you put that in writing? Were you favour of Eknath Shinde enjoying ministerial berth between 2019 and 2022 in the same government?”
Lande said he had registered his opposition with Eknath Shinde and the latter had promised to try to form a Sena-BJP alliance again. “I had said this when the MVA was being formed, but did not see it proper to say it again when the government was formed. You may ask my leaders by summoning them here whether I had recorded my disagreement with them,” he said.
According to insiders, Kamat is creating ground to rubbish Shinde faction’s claim of a deviation from the Hindutva ideology as the main reason for the split. “He repeatedly asked Lande about the authority Uddhav Thackeray enjoyed in the party between 2018 and 2022, and the appointments made by him. He posed questions about the ideology of the party according the rebels and their contrary stand during MVA government, and Ajit Pawar’s induction in the Sena-BJP alliance. This would help him to prove during the argument in the last leg about the ‘convenient’ stand taken by the rebels while splitting the party,” said a leader from Thackeray faction.
