Ever since the Maharashtra political crisis began, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who also edits party’s mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, has been issuing fiery or mocking statements, targetting the BJP.
With nail-biting Maharashtra politics reaching a point where political moves dwarf the predictions of the pundits, Raut chooses to mock the BJP yet agan.
On Monday, Raut on mocked the BJP, saying its leaders will go crazy if they are out of power.
Talking to reporters, Raut said mental health clinics will be formed in various parts of Maharashtra for "such people" after the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine comes to power in the state.
"The BJP leaders will go crazy if they are thrown out of power. They will lose their mental balance, as we are going to prove our majority during the floor test," Raut said.
"Once we form government, we will build a special hospital to treat the mental illness of BJP leaders," he said.
Raut said his party, the NCP and Congress have the required numbers and will prove to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari that they have the numbers to form government in Maharashtra.
Raut said the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress have signatures of all their respective MLAs to prove majority in the House.
He said the BJP acted like "Chambal dacoits" to form government in the state without having majority.
"The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress will have at least 10 MLAs more than the BJP when the floor test will be done in the Assembly," the Rajya Sabha member said.
After the BJP made a comeback to power in Maharashtra on Saturday with the help of Ajit Pawar and NCP's unspecified number of MLAs, some legislators of the Sharad Pawar-led party went 'missing'.
Raut alleged that four MLAs of NCP were "detained by either the BJP or Haryana Police" as the party is in power in that state.
"They can stoop to any level to gain political power," he said, claiming that Sena workers "rescued" four NCP MLAs from a hotel at Gurugram in Haryana.
The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.
The pre-poll alliance, however, fell apart after the BJP declined Sena's demand to share the chief minister's post.
The NCP and Congress won 54 and 44 seats respectively in the October 21 polls.
Raut said he has heard the BJP is ready to share the chief minister's post with Ajit Pawar for 2.5 years. "They were not ready to do the same with us. We will outsmart the BJP when it comes to prove the majority," he said.
He also cited the example of state's first chief minister and Congress leader Yashwantrao Chavan who had refused to stake claim for government formation despite an invitation from the then governor.
Raut said Chavan had asserted that since his was not the single largest party in the House, he refused the offer.
Asked about reasons behind NCP leaders trying to convince Ajit Pawar to come back to the party fold even as he has been removed as leader of the NCP's legislature wing, Raut said, "Nobody wants a split in family over politics."
"Even I had visited MNS chief Raj Thackeray (cousin of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray) when he defected from the Shiv Sena," he said.
Ajit Pawar may have taken the step (to support the BJP) emotionally, which his party leaders want to correct, the Sena leader said.
(With PTI Inputs)
