Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis worked for Nitin Gadkari's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
However, the claim of Raut, the close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray, was immediately rejected by the BJP.
In Nagpur, which went to polls in Phase-1, Gadkari, the ‘Highway Man of India’ and one of the best performing ministers of the Modi-government, is attempting a hat-trick.
Against him is Vikas Thakre, the sitting MLA from Nagpur West and a former Nagpur Mayor.
The Nagpur contest between BJP-led Maya Yuti (NDA) and Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A) is one of the closely-contested seats in Maharashtra.
Raut’s charge came in his weekly column that appears in Marathi daily and the party’s mouthpiece Saamana. “To ensure Gadkari’s defeat in Nagpur, Modi, Shah and Fadnavis came together and made attempts),” Raut wrote.
According to him, Fadnavis campaigned for Gadkari only when it became apparent that the Union minister was not going to be defeated.
Reacting to the charge, senior BJP leader and state Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said: “Sanjay Raut has this habit of making sensational statements…the statements are ridiculous and false.
On the other hand, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said: “Sanjay Raut is known for making statements which are never based on facts. This time he has crossed all the limits of decency by making wild and baseless allegations.”
Thakre too was rattled by the statements of Raut. “Sanjay Raut should speak on facts...before the elections he spoke for Gadkari…now also he is speaking for Gadkari…for what reason you are MVA.”
Published 26 May 2024, 08:12 IST