'Better join hands with PM Narendra Modi and BJP': Shiv Sena MLA writes to CM Uddhav Thackeray

A Shiv Sena MLA appealed to Uddhav Thackeray to reconcile with PM Modi saying it will be "beneficial to the party and party workers".

File photo

New Delhi: A Shiv Sena MLA appealed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to to reconcile with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it will be "beneficial to the party and party workers".

In a letter to the party supremo, Pratap Sarnaik sitting MLA from Thane district wrote: "We believe in you and your leadership but Congress and NCP are trying to weaken our party. I believe that it will be better if you get closer to PM Modi... If we come together once again, it will be beneficial to the party and workers."

The letter dated June 10 states: "NCP & Congress want their own CM. Congress wants to contest alone & NCP is trying to break away leaders from Shiv Sena. There seems to be veiled support from Centre, no central agency is behind NCP leaders."

Notably, Sarnaik is under the Enforcement Directorate's scanner for alleged money laundering case.

While Shiva Sena leader Sanjay Raut refused to comment on the demands made by the lawmaker though he pointed that a very important issue about Maha Vikas Aghadi MLAs are being harassed has been raised.

"An MLA has written to the chief minister. What should I say about this? However, he has, if the letter is authentic, raised a very important issue that MLAs of Maha Vikas Aghadi are being harassed," Raut told ANI.

In November 2020, the ED had raided premises linked to Sarnaik in Maharashtra in connection with a money laundering case being probed against a security service provider company and others. The Shiv Sena had called the raids a "political vendetta".

Shiv Sena had forged an alliance with the NCP and Congress and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra in 2019 after the Uddhav Thackeray-led party fell out with the BJP.