Two Shiv Sena ministers met with Modi and Thackeray in 2021 to form an alliance

Remarkably, two ministers from the Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde group appeared for cross-examination on Monday at Nagpur’s Vidhan Bhavan. They said that the then-Sena and the BJP had promised a new coalition.

Minister of Education Deepak Kesarkar informed Sena (UBT) lawyer Devadatt Kamat that in June 2021, he had negotiated a reconciliation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uddhav Thackeray, allowing the former to establish a cabinet by dissolving the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) administration. He said that after the purported encounter, Thackeray changed his mind and broke his word to Modi.

According to Kesarkar, Thackeray first met Modi on June 8, 2021, when visiting Delhi with Congressman Ashok Chavan and his deputy, Ajit Pawar. Modi and Thackeray had separate meetings. Later on, Thackeray informed me that the two factions had made the decision to reconcile. He had assured Modi that the MVA government would be dissolved in 15 days in order to install a Sena-BJP cabinet. However, he later instructed me to inform the Prime Minister that he would want further time to convince his party members,” Kesarkar informed Kamat, adding that the majority of party leaders supported the new development.

Uday Samant, the industries minister, and Kesakar’s colleague, informed Kamat that Thackeray had assured his lawmakers upon the formation of the MVA government (in November 2019) that he would take action to collaborate with the BJP and establish a two-party government in the near future. He added that during the formation of MVA, a number of MLAs led by Eknath Shinde had met Thackeray to voice their displeasure at severing links with the BJP since both parties had similar ideologies.

In response to Kamat’s inquiry, Samant said, “I decided to swear in as higher and technical minister in the MVA government only because we got the assurance from Thackeray about a BJP-Sena union.”

In honor of the party’s founder, Bal Thackeray, both emphasized that Thackeray was never named party chairman and that they regarded him as their leader.

Following the session, Shinde faction leaders said that the two ministers’ depositions would support their allegations in their disqualification applications.

On Tuesday, three more Shinde faction leaders will surrender for the cross-examination. After that, both parties will have three days to submit written arguments before to the oral arguments on December 18.