Even as Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s intra-party rebellion attracted more MLAs and split the party wide apart, MLA Nitin Deshmukh returned to Maharashtra while alleging a conspiracy on the part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Gujarat authorities to abduct and harm him.
The MLA, whose wife had earlier filed a ‘missing’ complaint with the Akola police, also claimed that a number of MLAs with Mr. Shinde wanted to return to Maharashtra, implying they had been spirited away to Surat under duress.
The MLA from Balapur constituency in Akola (in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region) said that his dramatic return to Maharashtra from Guwahati was akin to “Shivaji’s escape from Aurangzeb’s clutches in Agra”.
