For Rebels In Guwahati, "Postmortem" Swipe From Sena's Sanjay Raut

"The one who betrays Balasaheb is finished... The bodies of these 40 MLAs will come here. They will be directly sent to the mortuary for postmortem," Sanjay Raut said

Sanjay Raut, the closest aide of Uddhav Thackeray -- fighting back-to-the wall to save his party and the Maharashtra government -- today lashed out at the rebels holed up with Eknath Shinde in Guwahati.  "The one who betrays Balasaheb is finished... From now on, we have to decide who to trust and whose palanquin to carry. The bodies of these 40 MLAs will come here. They will be directly sent to the mortuary for postmortem," he said in Mumbai today, declaring that he "doesn't consider this a crisis".

"When I see the photos, Radisson Blu doesn't look like a hotel, it seems like the Bigg Boss house. People are drinking, eating, playing. And half of them will be eliminated... Till when will you hide in Guwahati, you will have to come back to Chowpatty,"he said.

"The 40 people who are there are living corpses. Only their bodies will come back here, there soul will be dead. When these 40 people step out here, they won't be alive at heart. They know what can happen in the fire that has been lit here. This is the Shiv Sena, and it has only 1 father. And you cannot steal a father. They want to split Maharashtra in 3 parts. We will not let that happen," he added.

Mr Raut's earlier remarks that the MLAs, when they come back to Maharashtra for a floor test, they "will find it difficult to return and move around" had caused an uproar in the rebel camp.