There is a move to finish me politically, socially: Sanjay Rathod

Rathod said that there should be a thorough probe into the Pooja Chavan incident

There is a move to finish me off politically and socially, says a beleaguered Shiv Sena’s Banjara community leader Sanjay Rathod targeting the opposition BJP.

“I was being defamed for nearly a fortnight now, my community was being defamed,” Rathod told reporters outside Varsha, the official residence of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, after he resigned as forest minister.

The four-time MLA from Yavatmal district, said: “There was an extremely low-level politics against me....I have been working politically and socially for the last 30 years...there is a move by (BJP) to finish me off politically and socially...hence I have decided to step down as a minister.”

He said that there should be a thorough probe into the incident. “Pooja Chavan was a girl from the Banjara community...we are sad, but the way the issue was used politically, it was bad,” he said, adding that the “opposition party” used media and social media to defame him and his community.

Rathod was accompanied by Parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab and Shiv Sena secretary Anil Desai, said that the opposition threatened to stall the Budget Session. “This is the Constitution drafted by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar,” he said.