The war of words between leaders of the Shiv Sena and the BJP has turned into an episodic political thriller; each allegation is countered with a more serious one, and neither side is relenting. The Marathi population is engrossed, reading about it in dailies and watching it on TV.
The political mudslinging is likely to intensify further with the arrest of state minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Wednesday. Malik was arrested in connection with a money laundering case linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
On February 15, Sanjay Raut, at a news conference at the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Mumbai, launched a broadside against BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, his son Neil, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and some unnamed Enforcement Directorate officials. He alleged that Somaiya and Neil were corrupt blackmailers and had links to Rakesh Wadhwan, a key accused in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank scam. He claimed that Neil was a director in the company Nicon Infra, in which Wadhwan was a partner.
He then claimed that a scam worth Rs25,000 crore had taken place in the state IT corporation during Fadnavis’s tenure, and that contracts had been given without issuing tenders. Raut named Amol Kale, Fadnavis’s friend from Nagpur, as one of the key players behind the alleged scam.
He also said that ED officials were running an extortion racket in Mumbai through their agents, and had collected Rs300 crore from more than 60 real estate players in the past few years. He dared BJP leaders to explain how a milkman from Haryana named Narvar had suddenly become worth Rs5,000 crore, and claimed that this was laundered money.
The allegations flew thick and fast. However, Raut offered no proof at the news conference. He said he had the necessary papers and would soon hand over the evidence to investigative agencies. “This is just a trailer,” he said. “I will return with documents, video clips and audio recordings.”
At the root of Raut’s outburst were allegations that Somaiya had made against him. The BJP leader had, on February 5, alleged that Sujit Patkar, a close friend of Raut, was given the contract for a Rs100 crore Covid-19 centre in Pune despite his company being blacklisted by civic authorities. The day Somaiya submitted a complaint to Pune Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar, he was reportedly attacked by Shiv Sainiks. “Mafia Sena can’t stop me from exposing [Uddhav] Thackeray sarkar’s ghotalas (scams),” Somaiya had tweeted.
Ever since the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government came to power, Somaiya has been—without adequate support from his party men—taking on what he calls the ‘Mafia Raj’ of the Thackeray government.
Somaiya had earlier exposed coastal regulation zone violations in the Ratnagiri bungalow of Milind Narvekar, a close aide of Thackeray. He had claimed that state Transport Minister Anil Parab had violated norms while building a resort near Dapoli’s coastal belt. This earned him a defamation suit. He had also alleged that Rashmi Thackeray and Manisha, wife of Sena MLA Ravindra Waikar, had bought 19 bungalows in the picturesque Korlai village in Raigad district. He said the women had paid the property tax in 2021 and had tweeted documents related to the bungalows. THE WEEK was among the first to write about Somaiya’s claims last year. Central agencies, too, began taking action after such revelations.
As for the bungalows, an inflamed Raut told journalists that he could arrange a trip for them to Korlai to see for themselves. “Show me a single bungalow that stands on that land,” said Raut.
Senior political analyst Abhay Deshpande said that the Sena had decided to take on the BJP as it did not have many options. “The approach seems to be that of Mamata Banerjee, and the way she is aggressively attacking the BJP in West Bengal,” he said. “The best person for it was Raut as Uddhav Thackeray is chief minister and is mild-mannered. Also, there is no political leader in the Sena as articulate as Raut. And, as Somaiya had levelled allegations against Raut, the party must have thought it fit for him to open the attack.”
Deshpande said things could escalate further as elections to the Mumbai, Thane, Pune and other municipal corporations are due in the next few months. “Raut has called Somaiya a Marathi dweshta Gujarati (the Gujarati who hates Maharashtrians), so the BJP has now fielded leaders like Narayan Rane, Ashish Shelar and Atul Bhatkhalkar. The party does not want a Gujarati versus Marathi battle in the run-up to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) elections as it wants to focus purely on the corruption of the Shiv Sena in the BMC and in the state government.”
