Overnight from Uddhav to Shinde, meet rebel MLA No. 40 Santosh Bangar

That video of the 42-year-old had emerged on June 24, when Bangar had been felicitated at his constituency by his supporters and Shiv Sainiks for staying with the Uddhav faction.

The MLA had himself tweeted the video, where he said: “Those who have betrayed the Shiv Sena have never won again in elections. Hence, I am humbly requesting all the MLAs, return to respected Uddhav Thackeray Saheb, he will surely forgive you… We will all sit together and make a decision. As followers of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Bal Thackeray, the flag of Hindutva that is flying high should not have any taint.”

The highlight of the video was a supporter wiping tears from Bangar’s cheek with a handkerchief.

Till Sunday, Bangar was with the Uddhav side in the Assembly, voting with it for the Speaker election. By Monday, he was in the Treasury benches.

Asked about the U-turn, Bangar told The Indian Express he backed the Shinde government in the trust vote to ensure that a “Shiv Sainik became CM” and that there was nothing wrong with that.

On his earlier appeal to rebel MLAs to not “betray” the Sena, Bangar said he had not betrayed the party but actually voted for it. “Eknath Shinde is our group leader in the Assembly and a whip was issued by our chief whip, Bharat Gogawale. I had to follow the whip to make Sean’s CM. I will always remain with the Shiv Sena,” he argued.

Asked specifically if his allegiance was with Shinde or Thackeray, Bangar said his allegiance was to the Shiv Sena and the party’s symbol.

If Bangar sounds like a seasoned politician, he is. While 2019 was the first time he won an Assembly election, by a margin of over 16,000 votes, he has been associated with the Sena since long. In 2017, he was made the party’s Hingoli district president.

He also keeps popping up in the news. In 2019, Bangar participated in a march supporting the Central government’s NRC-CAA, at a time when the Shiv Sena was staying away from directly supporting it, perhaps in deference to its new allies the Congress and NCP.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, Bangar claimed to have dipped into his fixed deposits of Rs 90 lakh to buy the controlled drug remdesivir to help people.