ED arrested me as I stopped BJP from coming to power in 2019, says Raut

Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut has claimed the primary reason behind the Enforcement Directorate arresting him in an alleged money laundering case was because he stopped the BJP from coming to power in Maharashtra in 2019In his book Narkartala Swarg Heaven in Hell Raut also claimed action was taken against him as he was the protective wall of the Uddhav Thackerayled Maha Vikas Aghadi government which came to power that yearThe book is about Rauts experiences in prison after ED arrested him in an alleged money laundering case in 2022 soon after the collapse of the Thackeray government Raut later got bailThe primary reason behind the ED action against me was I stopped the BJP from coming to power I also stood as a protective wall in defence of the Thackeray government After that the Thackeray government collapsedThe Eknath Shinde government was formed through unconstitutional means Both Shinde and then Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must have agreed on one thing that if the government has to function Raut must be behind bars he claimedRaut said the BJP was hurt that it had to sit in the opposition despite bagging 105 seats in the 288member assembly in the 2019 pollsWith Sena joining hands with Sharad Pawarled NCP the BJP had to sit in the opposition The BJP considered Raut the reason why it could not form the government in Maharashtra in 2019The BJP always had this regret he claimedThe BJP and the Shiv Sena had contested the 2019 assembly polls together But the Sena parted ways with the BJP over the post of chief ministerLater it became a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising the Congress and the undivided NCP The MVA government was led by ThackerayThe Rajya Sabha MP known to be a fierce critic of the BJP said the former ally could not see Uddhav Thackeray as the CM in 2019 so its leaders plotted to topple his governmentWith the government having a majority of 170 MLAs it was not possible that their Operation Lotus would succeed he saidWhich is why central agencies entered the battlefield Anil Deshmukh Nawab Malik and Sanjay Raut were fixed as targets he saidThe federal agency had decided upon a political agenda and had made a list of MVA leaders to be arrested in Maharashtra The list included Deshmukh Malik and Raut the book claimedDeshmukh and Malik both from the NCP were ministers in the Thackeray governmentThe ED had tightened its noose around 11 of the 40 MLAs including Shinde of the undivided Shiv Sena who revolted against Thackeray The ED was also going to arrest some of the MPs of the undivided Shiv Sena Raut claimedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params