Thane (Maharashtra), May 8 (IANS): The Shiv Sena (UBT) has claimed that Shiv Sena leader and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was "scared of going to jail" and wanted to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in June 2022, but the undivided party did not respond to his plea.

Launching a blistering attack on CM Shinde in his hometown Thane, SS(UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and candidate for Lok Sabha elections Rajan Vichare made the revelations at a major INDIA-MVA combined election rally late last night, here.

“On June 14, 2022, Shinde spoke with me, saying that 'it would be better to join the BJP and PM Narendra Modi'. He said he was not keen on going to jail,” claimed Raut.

When Raut sought details from him, CM Shinde said that he was being probed by the CBI-ED, and when asked to elaborate, he appeared perturbed and did not reveal more, but barely a fortnight later, he broke the Shiv Sena and subsequently became the CM.

“When I said that the ED-CBI will not just start probing unless they have something in hand, he did not specify…; and all the political developments followed,” pointed out Raut, referring to the vertical split in the Shiv Sena in June 2022 which toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi's then CM, Uddhav Thackeray.

Vichare said that much earlier in 2013, CM Shinde along with four (undivided) Shiv Sena MLAs was planning to switch over to the Congress ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections.

“However, at the last minute, the four SS legislators reneged and the plan collapsed. Look at his track record as a destroyer and party-breaker… Shinde has earlier broken up the party units in Thane, then the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, etc.”, said Vichare.

He claimed that even in 2013, CM Shinde’s sole aim was to break the Shiv Sena but he failed and finally did it after another 10 years.

Present at the huge rally were SS(UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, Jyoti Thackeray, Anand Dubey, the party’s Uttar Pradesh leader Brijesh Tiwari, Congress’ Amin Qureshi, Vikrant Chavan, NCP(SP)’s Suhas Desai, AAP’s Dhananjay Shinde, Dharmaraj Party’s Rajan Raje and others.