‘Nothing like natural and unnatural alliance in politics’: Raut

Stating that there is no such thing as a natural or unnatural alliance in politics, Raut, in his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena’s official mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, wrote, “In 2019, the BJP had attempted to form a government with the NCP. Just like Eknath Shinde, NCP’s Ajit Pawar had rebelled then. Had the BJP-NCP government continued, would you have then called it a natural alliance? There is nothing like a natural or unnatural alliance in politics,” Raut said.

Several rebel Shiv Sena MLAs claimed that the alliance with the NCP and the Congress was unnatural and the rebellion by Shinde and 39 other MLAs was meant to rectify the mistake (of forming the MVA government).

With the rebels holding their ground, the MVA eventually collapsed and the leader of the rebel faction Eknath Shinde formed the government with the help of the BJP. Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30.

After the state Assembly polls in 2019, the Sena had parted ways with the BJP, its 25-year-long ally, over the issue of sharing chief ministership.
However, the NCP’s Ajit Pawar had joined hands with Fadnavis to form the government in the state. Fadnavis and Pawar even took oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister in an early morning swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

The BJP-NCP combine, however, could not last more than three days as Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP and the government collapsed.
The Shiv Sena, along with the NCP and the Congress then came together to form the government.

Further, criticising the rebel MLAs Deepak Kesarkar and Uday Samant, who had defected from the NCP to join Shiv Sena, Raut wrote, “Why should they (Kesarkar and Samant) have a problem with NCP? In fact, this is not about morality, it is just political selfishness.”

Making another reference to government formation in 2014, Raut stated, “In 2014, there was a delay in forming the government during which NCP leader Praful Patel had openly announced support to the BJP in a bid to form the government. The BJP did not refuse his support. The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi never had a problem with NCP or its chief Sharad Pawar.”
The Sena MP alleged that the split in the party was engineered by Delhi (BJP) to finish the Shiv Sena as they had realised that Uddhav Thackeray could emerge as a national leader in future and hence, tried to pull him down.

Earlier on Sunday, Raut tweeted, “Barbados has a population of 2.5Lacs & yet has a Cabinet of 27. Maharashtra’s 12Cr population has cabinet of 2 members that is taking arbitrary decisions. Where is the regard for Constitution? Till the Constitut’l Bench of SC gives its verdict, impose President’s rule in Mah’stra.”

The tweet was in reference to the reversal of decisions of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government by the rebel Sena faction and BJP government. The decisions include bringing the high-stakes Metro car shed project at Aarey back on the table, reintroducing the pension scheme for those put behind bars during the Emergency and allowing voters to elect sarpanches and presidents of semi-urban and rural local administrative bodies.