Denying that they had staged a “rebellion”, the Shiv Sena MLAs led by Minister Eknath Shinde, who are currently camping in Assam, on Monday launched a blistering attack on Sena MP Sanjay Raut, accusing him of finishing off the party allegedly on the orders of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.
The dissident MLAs claimed that they were fighting for the preservation of the party’s “self-esteem”.
In a strongly-worded open letter which he posted on Twitter, Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar, who is the Minister of Sindhudurg district, said it was only because of the vitriol spewed on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Mr. Raut that the chasm between the two parties had widened.
