If you regret joining Eknath Shinde...: Sanjay Raut gives defectors a chance to fix their 'mistake'

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday suggested defectors who sided with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in 2022 to return to the party if they regret their "mistake."

"If anyone regrets the mistake...(because of) the way the BJP is insulting them, if anyone feels that they have made a mistake or were misguided, they should come back to the party led by Uddhav Thackeray," the Rajya Sabha member said. Although, he made it clear without taking any names that the party will not accept some defectors.

Raut's remark came a day after former state minister and Shinde loyalist Abdul Sattar said that while the BJP "cut the hands and legs of the Sena (UBT), it chopped off the head of the (Shinde-led) Shiv Sena in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district."

There was no point to the Sena-BJP alliance if "our elder brother is finishing us off," Sattar said, while replying in the affirmative when asked if the two Shiv Senas should come together.

Raut replied to Sattar's remark saying that the BJP was never the "elder brother" in the original saffron alliance in Maharashtra.

"The undivided Shiv Sena was the senior partner, and as the BJP could not accept this, it split the party," he said.

Raut even alleged that the Shinde-led Shiv Sena was not a party but was born of "corrupt practices" of the Election Commission adding that whenever the Supreme Court's decision on the legal dispute related to the Shiv Sena symbol and name comes, it will be in favour of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

(With PTI inputs)