‘Eknath Shinde was trying to join Congress when Prithviraj Chavan was Maha CM,’ claim MVA leaders 

BJP dismisses claims of Ashok Chavan and Uddhav loyalist Chandrakant Khaire as ‘laughable’

Reeling from the revolt by rebel Shiv Sena leader and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, leaders of the beleaguered Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition (of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Congress) have made sensational claims that Mr. Shinde had wanted to defect to the Congress in the recent past.

Former four-time MP and Uddhav camp loyalist Chandrakant Khaire on Thursday claimed that Mr. Shinde and other Sena MLAs had harboured such plans when Congressman Prithviraj Chavan was the CM (2010-14). He had been mulling a breakaway faction of the Sena with MLAs to join the Congress, much like his intra-party revolt a few months ago, Mr. Khaire elaborated.

“He [Mr. Shinde] had been after Prithviraj Chavan to join the Congress but nothing came after it. Today, he blames Uddhav Thackeray for allying with Congress to form the MVA but what about his own inclinations at the time?” said Mr. Khaire, an influential Sena leader from Aurangabad district in Marathwada.

Mr. Khaire’s claims come a day after senior Congressman Ashok Chavan said that the Shiv Sena had wished to form an MVA-like alliance when the latter was in alliance with the BJP and Devendra Fadnavis was CM in the BJP-Sena government (2014-19).

“During the Fadnavis government, a delegation of Shiv Sena leaders had come to us with a proposal to form the government. Mr. Shinde was part of this delegation,” Mr. Ashok Chavan had said on Wednesday, while hinting that the Sena, frustrated by the BJP’s ‘domineering’ attitude, had been trying to break away from their saffron partner even then.

The Sena leader further backed Mr. Chavan’s claims.

Both the ruling BJP and the Shinde-led Sena faction rubbished the claims of both Mr. Khaire and Mr. Chavan as “laughable”.