Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday criticised former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, accusing him of removing the fear of the law from politicians who defected from parties in Maharashtra.
Raut claimed that Chandrachud’s failure to rule on disqualification petitions allowed defections to take place unchecked. He alleged that by not addressing these petitions, the former CJI kept the doors open for such political shifts. Speaking to reporters, Raut said, “He (Chandrachud) has removed the fear of the law from defectors. His name will be written in black letters in history.”
Following the split of the undivided Shiv Sena in 2022, Uddhav Thackeray's faction filed petitions with the Supreme Court challenging the disqualification of MLAs who defected to Eknath Shinde’s camp. The court passed the matter to the assembly Speaker, who later ruled that Shinde’s faction was the “real political party.”
Raut also suggested that the election results were pre-determined, adding that if the disqualification petitions had been resolved earlier, the outcome might have been different. “We are sad but not disappointed. We will not leave the fight incomplete,” Raut said. He cited vote division and the role of the RSS as factors in the election results, also accusing a “poisonous campaign” of negatively impacting his party.
In his weekly column in the party’s mouthpiece, Saamana, Raut further criticised the Election Commission, claiming it ignored the use of money power in the election. He also noted that the courts had been “in the ICU for a long time.”
The ruling Mahayuti secured a landslide victory on Saturday as votes were counted on Saturday. The counting of the postal ballots started at 8 am — with early trends confirming a significant lead for the ruling Mahayuti alliance on over 200 seats. The numbers have continued to remain in favour of the grouping with the party now set to win 236 seats out of 288. The majority mark in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is 145.The high-stakes Assembly elections was marked by a fierce two-cornered battle between the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.