Uddhav had earlier remarked that the rebels would be defeated if they contest the elections. Shinde said, “It is said that none of the rebel MLAs will get elected. but i say no MLA will lose I have taken responsibility for this. If any of these men lose, I will quit politics.” He added, “Besides, who are you to decide who will win and who will lose? It is all decided by the people. Voters decide.”
Earlier too, after his new government won a vote of confidence in the assembly, Shinde had said that he would ensure that all MLAs accompanying him are elected and that there is more among his team. BJPThey will get 200 seats. If they didn’t, he would have gone to the fields, he said.
Shinde was speaking at an event organized to honor rebel Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat in Prabhadevi in the early hours of Friday. Later, Shinde also spoke at the felicitation ceremony of rebel MLA Abdul Sattar.
Taking another dig without naming Uddhav, Shinde said that he had made a film on the life of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, which was liked by the people but some people could not digest it and vented their anger on it. Shinde said that instead of introspecting about what went wrong at his end, the leadership of the Uddhav faction is calling him and the MLAs who have supported him “traitors”.
“We made a film on the life of ‘Dharmaveer’ Anand Dighe so that his life and work can be shown to the people. Dighe helped the Shiv Sena grow in Thane and Palghar, and his picture is in every household, but what did he do? I will definitely speak when the time comes. You all liked the film, but some people did not like it… some people could not digest the film and they also took out their anger on me. Is it or not. Dighe said that Balasaheb (Thackeray) was his guru, and we are carrying forward Balasaheb’s ideology.” He said that the Uddhav faction should have introspected. “There is no case against those criticizing us, we have hundreds of cases against us and have even gone to jail (for Shiv Sena),” the CM said.