‘His mental health not well; must do yoga’: Raut takes fresh jibe on Rane

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that BJP will soon realise its mistake of inducting Narayan Rane in the Union cabinet.

A day after Union minister Narayan Rane threatened to expose Shiv Sena following his arrest and subsequent bail over the ‘slap CM’ remark, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that the former’s “egotist and revengeful attitude” has forced the BJP on backfoot.

He also suggested that Rane should practise yoga and said that his mental health is not well. “Even Shiv Sainiks will pray for his good health,” he noted, adding that the Union minister’s arrest was “legal and justified” as everyone is “equal before the law.”

Raut claimed that his former party colleague was not following the directives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it came to the ‘Jan Ashirvad Yatra’.

He said that Rane, unlike other new inductees of the Union cabinet from Maharashtra such as Kapil Patil, Bhagwat Karad, and Bharti Pawar, who are also touring the state to spread the word on works of the central government, has been “targetting the Sena, Uddhav Thackeray and the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government.”

Referring to the Union minister’s statement on exposing the Sena “step-by-step”, Raut asked, “Don’t we have his ‘Kundli’? Be prepared when we open our ‘sandook’ (box).”

The Sena MP further pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will soon “realise its mistake” of inducting Rane in the Union cabinet.

Raut also spoke about a one-on-one meeting between Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis and Thackeray, saying the latter told Fadvanis what he needed to do. “We have political differences with BJP. If BJP wants to shoot us over Rane's shoulders, we are ready. We had differences with (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar also but today we are together,” Raut added.

Rane, who was apprehended and subsequently released on Tuesday, flew to Ratnagiri on Friday morning to resume his Jan Ashirwad Yatra. On Friday, he took fresh jibes at the Maharashtra government and Shiv Sena by saying that he didn’t do anything “wrong” and that the party only held him as it enjoys power in the state.

“What has Shiv Sena given to [the] Konkan region in [the] last two years? They thought I would be scared if they took action against me. But our journey has been successful,” he added.

The union minister asked – without naming anyone, who had conspired to throw acid on his brother’s wife a few years before. “Are these sanskars (tradition)?” he also asked.

Rane made the controversial ‘slap CM’ remark after Thackeray allegedly forgot the year of India’s Independence and enquired about the same from someone. He was given bail on Tuesday after his counsel appealed for the same on several grounds, including his health.

(With inputs from agencies)