Maharashtra local body polls: Nitesh Rane targets Eknath Shinde over Sena workers campaigning for rival faction

Mumbai: BJP leader and Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane has claimed that Shiv Sena workers campaigning for a Sena (UBT) candidate in Sindhudurg district raised doubts about Deputy CM Eknath Shinde's past claims that he had rebelled against the then MVA government due to "injustice".

Rane said the situation raised serious doubts about the justification of Shinde's rebellion in 2022. His elder brother Nilesh Rane is an MLA from the Shinde-led Sena.

"Eknath Shinde had claimed he witnessed injustice to Shiv Sena workers under then chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray; hence, he rebelled. If he rebelled then, why are his party workers campaigning for Sandesh Parkar, a Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and candidate in the Kankavli municipal council elections?" he asked while speaking to reporters in Sindhudurg district on Saturday evening.

Rane said that not only the people of Sindhudurg, but the entire Maharashtra will ask Shinde whether there is any meaning left to his so-called rebellion.

The latest outburst against Shinde came at the fag end of the campaigning for the first phase of local body polls, scheduled for December 2, marked by shifting political alliances and one-upmanship bids by leaders of Mahayuti allies, the BJP and Shiv Sena.

Shinde engineered a split in the undivided Shiv Sena in June 2022, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

Shinde successfully established an alliance with the BJP and was sworn in as the Chief Minister, with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis being sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.

In February 2024, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled that Shinde's faction was the "real Shiv Sena" political party.

After the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 2024 assembly polls, Shinde resigned from the post of the Chief Minister in December that year, succeeded by Fadnavis.