Before rebellion, Maharashtra CM cried, said will be jailed if…, says Aaditya Thackeray; Shiv Sena denies

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has cried at Matoshree fearing arrest by a central agency before his revolt against the Thackerays, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed on Thursday. Speaking during an interaction at a university in Visakhapatnam, Aaditya Thackeray said Eknath Shinde had come and cried at Matoshree, before his rebellion, fearing arrest. He said the 40 MLAs rebelled against the Sena leadership in 2022 for their own seats and "money".

Aaditya Thackeray said, "The current chief minister [Eknath Shinde] came to our house and cried because he was going to be arrested by a central agency, and he said 'I will have to hop over to the BJP otherwise they will arrest me'. It was his good luck that they [the BJP] wanted to show this guy is the true Sena and we [BJP] will make him the CM."

Aaditya Thackeray's claims against Eknath Shinde have been denied by the Shiv Sena leaders.

MLA Santosh Bangar denied Aaditya Thackeray's claim and said there was no threat by the BJP. The reason behind the 2022 "revolt" against the Thackerays was their alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, Bangar said.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale also said the allegations against Shinde were false and the latter was a “strong” man and he would never cry.

Speaking of his party's alliance with the Congress and the NCP to form a government in Maharashtra, Aaditya Thackeray said, “My grandfather [Bal Thackeray] had tie-ups with the Congress before. He had better relations with the Gandhi family earlier also. He had openly supported Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil openly when the BJP was putting up another candidate [during presidential elections].”

Senior leader Sanjay Raut has supported Aaditya Thackeray over his “Eknath Shinde cried at Matoshree” claim in a Twitter post. He said the claim is 100 per cent true and Eknath Shinde had said the same thing to him as well.