MUMBAI: Shiv Sena minister Shamburaj Desai threatened to resign from the BJP-led Mahayuti government following the alleged police assault on him during the Satara Zilla Parishad election that concluded recently.
Shiv Sena and NCP ministers and MLAs protested against the government over Satara district police superintendent Tushar Doshi's inhumane treatment of the minister during the elections.
In Satara Zilla Parishad, Shiv Sena and NCP had joined hands against the BJP. However, the BJP allegedly filed cases against two Zilla Parishad members of Shiv Sena and NCP, preventing them from voting, and later arrested them. The BJP won the election by two votes.
Shiv Sena minister Shamburaj Desai, who also hails from Satara, claimed that when police in plain clothes assaulted him while he was going for voting.
“I have been in politics for the last 40 years, but never seen such misuse of power by any establishment. I was surprised and shocked also. My grandfather was the home minister of Maharashtra, but he never misused the power to trample the opposition and dissenting voices. But today, what we are witnessing is quite unprecedented. The democracy was murdered in broad daylight. The police not only manhandled us but also treated us like slaves. They dragged us when we stopped from arresting our members,” Desai said.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde called a meeting of his BJP ministers and MLAs, where they expressed their anger against their own government, the police, the administration and the BJP leadership.
“Some of the ministers threatened to resign if they continued to be poorly treated by their own government. Shinde promised them to take up this issue with the top BJP leaders. However, anger against the BJP was palpable,” said a source who was part of the meeting, requesting anonymity.
Interestingly, the state legislative council was also seen as divided. When Council Chairman and BJP MLC Ram Shinde presided over the House, he protected the Satara police and administration for legally conducting the election, while vice chairman and Shiv Sena MLC Nilam Gore suspended the Satara Police superintendent over bad conduct against the minister and ordered the probe by the divisional commissioner of police.