If the INDIA bloc gets majority, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax (I-T) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials will barge into the homes of the current dispensation in the same manner as theirs, declared Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in his address at Ratnagiri on Sunday evening.
“The workers that you currently have — ED, I-T and CBI, they will be with us tomorrow. They will be under us. They way you have been misusing them. I warn these officials that you will face the music,” warned Mr. Thackeray.
Citing the example of the party’s three-time MLA from Rajapur, whose house was raided this January by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau, Mr. Thackeray said, “The way you entered our Rajan Salvi’s home, tomorrow after we get the majority, we won’t stay back from entering your homes.”
In Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency, Vinayak Raut from the Sena (UBT) is pitted against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Narayan Rane, who once belonged to the undivided Shiv Sena. In the 2019 general election, Mr. Rane’s son, Nilesh Rane, contesting on Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, ended up in the third spot.
In the 2014 poll, Mr. Nilesh Rane, contesting on a Congress ticket, was defeated by Mr. Raut.
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Thackeray remembered late Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee, stating that he must be crying seeing his party’s present condition.
“Voting for Modi means voting for destruction,” said the Sena (UBT) chief while apologising for seeking support for Mr. Modi during the previous Lok Sabha election.
“You heard me back then. Now, I ask you the opposite. You must keep BJP at bay. I request you to follow me, precisely the way you did during the COVID pandemic.”
While seeking support for Mr. Raut, the former Chief Minister lambasted the candidate’s political rival without naming him. “Had you all not given support, Konkan would have seen goons ruling this land,” Mr. Thackeray said.
