Rs 2,000 Cr Deal Made To 'Purchase' Shiv Sena Name & Symbol, Will Disclose Soon, Sanjay Raut Claims

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut alleged that a deal of Rs 2,000 crore has been made so far to 'purchase' the Shiv Sena name and its 'bow and arrow' symbol.

Shiv Sena Row: Leader of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed that a deal of Rs 2,000 crore has been made so far to purchase the Shiv Sena name and its 'bow and arrow' symbol. He added that he will soon disclose details of the same. 

Raut tweeted, "I have reliable information that there has been a deal of Rs 2000 crore to get the Shiv Sena name and its symbol. This is a preliminary figure and is 100 per cent true.” 

“Many things will be revealed shortly. Never before this has happened in the country's history," he added. 

Talking to the news agency ANI, Raut said without naming anyone, "The party, the leader & the dishonest group that bids Rs 50 cr for MLAs, Rs 100 cr for MPs & Rs 50 lahks to 1 cr to buy our councillors. How much it would bid to take our name & symbol, you decide? My info is Rs 2,000 Crores. "

He added that he has informed the nation with his tweet that the way his symbol & Shiv Sena’s name have been taken is not just, it's a business deal for which Rs 2000 cr worth of transactions are done within 6 months.  

"And this is my initial estimate," Raut added. 

However, according to PTI, MLA Sada Sarvankar from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde camp, dismissed the claim and asked, "Is Sanjay Raut a cashier?"  

PTI mentioned that Raut also told reporters that a builder close to the ruling dispensation shared this information with him. 

The remarks came after the Election Commission on Friday recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to it. 

The Election Commission allocated the party name "Shiv Sena" and poll symbol "bow and arrow" to the Eknath Shinde faction. In its 78-page ruling, the EC noted that MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election.    

The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order. 

The Shiv Sena split into two factions after Shinde revolted against Uddhav Thackeray last year, leading to the collapse of the MVA government. Shinde then went on to form the government with BJP's support and was made the Chief Minister. More than 40 of the Shiv Sena's 55 MLAs backed Shinde, forcing Thackeray to resign as Maharashtra Chief Minister. 

Since then, both Shinde and Uddhav factions have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party. 

Raut's Reply To Amit Shah's Remarks On EC Order 

As per the PTI report, to a question on Union Home Minister Amit Shah's attack on former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray with "licking soles of those with opposite ideology" jibe, Raut asked, "What is the present chief minister licking? Maharashtra doesn't give importance to what Shah says. The current chief minister has no right to take Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's name." 

Raut told ANI, "What HM Amit Shah says has never been taken seriously. What can we say about people who believe in buying justice & truth? Who has won & lost Maharashtra we'll show when the time comes. We'll not say anything now." 

Amit Shah on Saturday said those who chose to "lick the soles" of people with opposite ideologies have found which side the truth was on after the EC order, reported PTI. 

Without naming Uddhav Thackeray, Shah also reiterated there was no agreement on sharing the chief minister's post in the run up to the 2019 Assembly polls, the report further said.