Will quit politics if a single MLA loses polls: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde

MUMBAI: Responding to Uddhav Thackeray's statement that rebel Shiv Sena MLAs should face elections, CM Eknath Shinde said on Friday, without naming Thackeray, that he would quit politics if even a single one of 40 Sena MLAs who had backed him lost the next elections.
Uddhav had remarked earlier that the rebels would lose if they contested polls. Shinde said, "It is said that none of the rebel MLAs will be elected. But I say no MLA will lose. I have taken responsibility for this. If any of these men lose, I will leave politics." He added, "Also, who are you to decide who will win and who will lose? All this is decided by people. Voters decide."

Earlier too, after his new government had won the trust vote in the assembly, Shinde had said that he would ensure that all the MLAs with him would get elected and between his team and BJP, they would get 200 seats. If they didn't, he would go till the fields, he had said.
Shinde was speaking at a function to felicitate rebel Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat in Prabhadevi in the early hours of Friday. Later, Shinde also spoke at a similar felicitation function for rebel MLA Abdul Sattar.

Taking another dig at Uddhav without naming him, Shinde said he had made a film on the life of late Sena leader Anand Dighe which was liked by people, but some people could not digest it and vented out that anger on him. Shinde said instead of introspecting about what had gone wrong at their end, the leadership of the Uddhav faction was labelling him and the MLAs who have supported him as "traitors."

"We made a film on the life of 'Dharmaveer' Anand Dighe so that his life and work could be shown to people. Dighe helped Shiv Sena to grow in Thane and Palghar, and his photo is there in every home, but what did he get? When the times comes, I will surely speak out. All of you liked the film, but some people didn't like it...some people could not digest the film, and they also vented out that anger on me. But I don't care about who likes it or not. Dighe said Balasaheb (Thackeray) was his guru, and we are taking Balasaheb's ideology forward," Shinde said. He said the Uddhav faction should have introspected. "Those criticising us have no cases against them, we have hundreds of cases against us and have even gone to jail (for Sena)," the CM said.