‘Eknath Shinde cried, desperately urged my father to join BJP…after cash was found in his godown,’ says Aaditya Thackeray

Aaditya Thackeray said Shinde was threatened by Modi Government to join hands with BJP or face arrest.

Aaditya Thackeray Uddhav Thackeray Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena

"Eknath Shinde had come to 'Matoshree' and met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. He was crying at that time and was desperately urging my father to join hands with the BJP," Aaditya Thackeray said in Pimpri-Chinchwad today

Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday claimed that when Eknath Shinde was a minister in MVA government, he made desperate attempts to force Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to join hands with BJP.

“Eknath Shinde had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. He was crying at that time and was desperately urging my father to join hands with the BJP,” Aaditya Thackeray said in Pimpri-Chinchwad on Tuesday where he had come for filing the nomination papers of Sena candidate Sanjog Waghere.

Aaditya Thackeray said Eknath Shinde was threatened by Modi government to join hands with BJP or face arrest. “He was told to either join us or go to jail by the Modi government. This was after cash was found in his godown…And after that he had come pleading to Uddhav Thackeray to join hands with the BJP,” he said.

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Eknath Shinde had staged a rebellion on June 21, 2022 and subsequently by the end of the month, he had become the chief minister with the support of 40 MLAs who had walked out of the Uddhav Sena.

Aaditya Thackeray claimed, “On May 20, 2022, Eknath Shinde had come to ‘Varsha’ bungalow. This was after the Income Tax department had seized his cash godown. Eknath Shinde was given the offer of either joining hands with BJP or go to jail. Scratching his beard, Eknath Shinde started crying. Even as he was crying, he told Uddhav Thackeray that he was being threatened…He said this was not the age to go to jail. What should I do? He told Uddhav Thackeray that let us join hands with BJP, otherwise they will put me in jail.”

Aaditya said BJP resorts to lies and blatant lies.

Aaditya Thackeray’s statement came hours after Sanjay Raut made a comment on similar lines in Mumbai. Raut said Modi government had threatened Shinde with arrest if he did not split the Sena.

Raut alleged on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government had planned to arrest Chief Minister Eknath Shinde back when he was a minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

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“The Modi government had planned to arrest Eknath Shinde. The chief minister should be asked whether this is true or not,” said Raut.

Asked about the case in which Shinde was purportedly meant to be arrested, the MP alleged, “He had committed several irregularities… He was involved in money laundering.”

According to Raut, Shinde was told that action would be initiated against him if he did not part ways with the MVA along with several MLAs.

“They asked him to split the Sena or face arrest,” he said.

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Raut said, “The Chief Minister is saying that Uddhav Thackeray had planned to arrest Devendra Fadnavis, Ashish Shelar, Pravin Darekar…How did this thought occur to Shinde’s mind? Because these people had done something wrong…Why would anyone be arrested if there was no substantial ground?”

Raut alleged that Devendra Fadnavis was involved in phone tapping. “It is a serious crime under Indian Telegraph Act and Indian Evidence Act. The investigation in this matter was underway.

He feared he would be arrested any moment. He knew he had committed a crime. When he was the Chief Minister and Home Minister, he had ordered phone tapping of leaders of opposition parties. He had appointed two officers for the purpose. One of them was Rashmi Shukla who today is the state DGP,” he said.

Raut said, “No matter how big a criminal is, everyone is equal before the law. This is what Shinde’s bosses Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah say. The Modi government has arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Similarly, they have arrested several ministers, MLAs and MPs.”

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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