Sanjay Raut Slams ‘Delhi Scriptwriters’ Ahead Of Uddhav Thackeray’s Court Hearing

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will decide who gets the Shiv Sena name and symbol, said Sanjay Raut, leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, on the eve of a major Supreme Court hearing on the Sena split. Sanjay Raut also claimed that a 2,000 crore deal was struck to "purchase" the Sena name and symbol and that the entire scheme was devised to capture the Brihanmumbai Corporation, the country's richest local body, in the next municipal elections.

Alleging that the "Delhi people are scriptwriters," he stated that the people in Maharashtra are "simply pawns". Tomorrow, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will hear the next hearing on a number of issues relating to the Shiv Sena saga.

In an unexpected decision on Friday, the Election Commission ended the months-long dispute for the Sena name and symbol in favor of the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Uddhav Thackeray has appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, requesting an urgent hearing. The court, however, asked senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to "Come tomorrow through proper process".

According to the media reports, Sanjay Raut said, "the decision on this will happen at the Supreme Court and the SC had said that Election Commission should not take a decision as the matter is sub judice."

"So why the decision was taken in a hurry? Who is behind this? A pre-decided programme was already made. What needs to be done when, when is the decision needs to be taken, what day the Governor needs to be changed, when will Amit Shah come... All this is a part of the script," he added. 

An aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut was doing "good work of destroying Uddhav Thackeray".

Bharat Gogawale, chief whip of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, also said police cases were being filed against Raut for an alleged derogatory and inappropriate term used by the latter while describing Shinde.

(With PTI inputs)