Sena activists demand punishment for rebels

- MLC mentioned granting of development funds by the minister was not a favour.

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, June 22:

The local office-bearers and activists of Shiv Sena today staged a demonstration demanding action against the party’s five MLAs who rebelled and extended support to the Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde, at Kranti Chowk, today morning. They waged a ‘Halla Bol’ claiming Shinde has not done any favour, instead the grants were issued to undertake development works represented by Shiv Sena. Meanwhile, the women activists also expressed their anger and cursed the rebels.

The district’s MLAs Ramesh Bornare, Pradeep Jaiswal, Sanjay Shirsat, EGS minister Sandeepan Bhumre and minister of state (MoS) Abdul Sattar went not reachable since Monday and left Maharashtra with Shinde. The news created a sensation in the political circle. It may be noted that there was no reaction from the party on Tuesday, but the shouting of slogans against rebels echoed in the vicinity of Kranti Chowk today morning. The agitators underlined that they worked hard to get these MLAs elected from their constituencies. Hence they should have at least respected the sentiments of party members.

The agitators comprising office-bearers from Shiv Sena, its women wing, and Yuva Sena urged the rebels to return to restart working together.

The agitation was participated by Raju Vaidya, Nandkumar Ghodele, Hanuman Shinde, Balasaheb Thorat, Krishna Dongaonkar, Vishwanath Swamy, Manoj Gangwe, Dnyaneshwar Dange, Digvijay Sherkhane, Vishal Gayake and others. The office-bearers from Shiv Sena and Yuva Sena (Aurangabad West constituency), some deputy city chiefs, organisers of the legislative assembly constituencies, former AMC office-bearers, apart from the supporters of the rebel MLAs were absent in the agitation.

We are not against anybody: MLC

The party’s district chief MLC Ambadas Danve said,” The agitation is not against any person or MLA. We expressed our emotions by shouting slogans. However, there is no guarantee that Shiv Sena activists will sit silent. Today, the agitation was at Kranti Chowk. Tomorrow it will be conducted in Paithan, Sillod, Vaijapur, Aurangabad Central and West constituencies. The demonstrations will also be done in front of the houses of rebels. Mind well, nobody has done any favour by granting funds for development. It was given to Shiv Sena representatives.”