Central bodies worsened unrest stirred up by BJP

Mumbai: The BJP played a tacit role over the last two-anda-half years by fomenting the unrest within the Shiv Sena, exasperated in no small measure by the multiple cases registered against Sena leaders like Transport Minister Anil Parab.

Thackeray’s chief strategist, Parab spent the better part of Wednesday ensconced within the office of the Enforcement Directorate in south Mumbai.

Eknath Shinde and many of the rebel MLAs—who seek a rapprochement with the BJP ostensibly on the premise of ‘Hindutva’—are more concerned about their own political careers that may be impacted if they fail to toe the BJP line.

This was again evident on Wednesday when Sena Member of Parliament Bhavna Gawali also wrote to Thackeray seeking his “understanding” on behalf of the dissenters and urging that no action be taken against them.

Gawali herself is hard-pressed to explain to the ED the origin of Rs7 crore that she had reported stolen from her Mumbai office, and faces the prospect of arrest in the case. Pratap Sarnaik, another Sena rebel, had similarly made an impassioned written plea to the CM earlier for a rapprochement with the BJP even as his case before the ED was pending.

Meanwhile, Shinde, is clear about his strategy to invoke the late Balasaheb Thackeray and his own mentor from Thane, the late Anand Dighe—both of whom he is leveraging while unofficially seeking to take over the Shiv Sena party himself.