Vice president of BJP’s Maharashtra unit Chitra Wagh on Tuesday tweeted her displeasure over the inclusion of Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Rathod into the cabinet.
Mumbai: Moments after 18 MLAs — nine each from Shiv Sena and BJP — on Tuesday were sworn-in as ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet, there already seems to be a crack in the alliance.
Vice president of BJP’s Maharashtra unit Chitra Wagh on Tuesday tweeted her displeasure over the inclusion of Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Rathod into the cabinet. Rathod was accused of abetting a TikTok star’s suicide and he had to resign from his post. In fact, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was then the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, had led the agitation against Rathod, the forest minister in the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet.
Wagh’s tweet read, “It is very unfortunate that former minister Sanjay Rathore, who caused the death of Pooja Chavan, has been given the post of minister again. Even though Sanjay Rathore has become a minister again, I will continue my fight against him. I believe in god of justice. Ladenge….jitenge.”
Defending his inclusion, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said, “He’s been given the clean chit by the police after an investigation was carried out during the previous government. And that is why we have made him a minister. We will speak to anybody who has an objection.”
Wagh’s tweet has already been widely shared and so was another — a video by BJP’s Kirit Somaiyya from last year. In the video, Somaiyya is heard saying the suicide was actually “a murder” by Rathod.
Rathod is an MLA from the Digras constituency of Yavatmal. It was alleged that Rathod was in a relationship with a woman which later went bad, leading to her death. Later, a special investigation team gave Rathod a clean chit.
Days after the continuous potshots by the Opposition that the Maharashtra government is being run by only two persons — Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis — a total of 18 MLAs were sworn-in as ministers in Mumbai on Tuesday and Rathod was a part of it too.
