Rebels’ first attack on Uddhav: Open letter saying ‘they were humiliated’

In a letter to Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, one of the Shiv Sena rebels, speaking for all mutineers, stated that they felt humiliated and were denied access to Thackeray.

Aurangabad West MLA Sanjay Shirsat wrote the letter—which was tweeted by the rebel group leader Eknath Shinde—claiming there were several instances when the rebel members felt humiliated in the past two-and-a-half years.

Shirsat’s letter—which is the first direct attack on Thackeray—comes a day after the Shiv Sena chief offered to step down as the Maharashtra Chief Minister and moved out of his official residence, Varsha.

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The letter seemed to be echoing the sentiments of most of the rebels, who are at present holed up at the hotel Radisson Blu in Guwahati. The letter also pointed out how the MLAs were not allowed to accompany Yuva Sena President Aaditya Thackeray, when he visited Ayodhya earlier this month.

Backing Shinde—whose support base is growing by the hour—the letter stated: “Only Shinde heard us and took steps to resolve all problems…all party MLAs persuaded Shinde to take this step for the rights of all legislators.”

While Shiv Sena legislators had no access to the Chief Minister, people from Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, who are the real opponents of Shiv Sena, were getting all the attention, the letter alleged.

“Yesterday we were pleased to see people at Varsha. We were denied entry to the Chief Minister's house for two-and-a-half years. We were made to wait for hours outside his gates…in Mantralaya’s sixth floor the Chief Minister meets people, but for us that question does not arise as you never went to Mantralaya,” he said.

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Shirsat also wrote that Shinde’s doors were always open to party MLAs to hear their grievances: issues regarding development work in their constituencies, development work fund. Shinde was also available to listen to their apprehensions regarding alliance partners Congress and NCP.

“Whenever we got a call from Varsha that you would like to meet us, we were made to wait for several hours by your coterie. They never took our calls…why should we be humiliated like this despite being elected by three to four lakh people,” the letter stated.

“Hindutva, Ram Mandir, Ayodhya are core issues of the Shiv Sena, then why were we prevented from going to Ayodhya when Aditya Thackeray visited the temple town?...In the Rajya Sabha polls, not a single Shiv Sena vote split, then why so much distrust for Council polls?” Shirsat said in the letter.