‘Treachery With Maharashtra’: Sanjay Raut Reacts To Anant Kumar Hegde’s Statement

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday termed Anant Kumar Hegde’s statement as ‘treachery with Maharashtra’. The former Union minister had termed Devendra Fadnavis taking oath as Chief Minister as ‘drama’. Taking to Twitter, Raut said, Anant Kumar Hegde says Devendra Fadnavis as CM for 80 hours, moved Maharashtra’s Rs 40000 crore to Centre. This is treachery with Maharashtra (sic).”

Hegde on Sunday invoked a controversy saying, the entire exercise was pre-planned for a big goal. “You all know our man in Maharashtra became CM for 80 hours. Fadnavis then resigned, why did he do this drama? Didn't we know that we didn't have majority,” Hegde asked. Then he claimed that, “Chief Minister has access to around Rs 40,000 crore. If the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena would have managed to come in power at that point, they would have misused Rs 40,000-crore fund. It's all central government money and it wouldn't have been used for development.”

According to Hegde, the surprise political twists of November 23 that saw Fadnavis taking oath at Raj Bhavan around 8 am was ‘planned much before’. “This was all planned much before. It was decided that there should be a natak (drama). So, Fadnavis took oath as Chief Minister. Immediately, in 15 hours he moved all Rs 40,000 crore to wherever it belonged. Fadnavis saved all the money. All the money was given back to the Centre,” Hegde claimed.

Earlier in the day, Raut took a veiled poetic jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amid the ongoing political developments in Maharashtra. Taking to micro blogging website, Twitter, Raut quoting a dialogue from 1965 Bollywood film, Waqt, starring Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor wrote, ‘Jinke apne ghar sheeshay ke hoon ... woh doosron par patthar nahi phenka karte’, which roughly translates to: "Those whose own houses made of glass ... do not throw stones at others."