'I prevented BJP from coming to power in 2019, so ED arrested me', claims Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut announced that his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged money laundering case was because, as a leader, he stopped the BJP from forming a government in Maharashtra in 2019. Sanjay Raut, in his book 'Naraktala Swarga' (Heaven in Hell), also said that he was acted against for having served as the protective bulwark of Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government that took over in 2019. The book recounts Sanjay Raut's jail experiences after the ED took him under arrest in a money laundering case soon after the Thackeray government collapsed in 2022. Sanjay Raut was subsequently given bail.

He said, "The main reason behind the action against me was that I prevented the BJP from coming to power. I was a protective wall for the Thackeray government." He claimed, "The Eknath Shinde government was formed through unconstitutional means. Both Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis must have agreed on one thing that if the government has to function, Raut should be behind bars."

Raut said that the BJP is hurt that it had to sit in the opposition despite winning 105 seats in the 288-member assembly in the 2019 elections. The Shiv Sena joined hands with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, forcing the BJP to sit in the opposition. He claimed that the BJP considers Raut to be the reason for not being able to form the government in Maharashtra in 2019. The BJP has always regretted this. The BJP and the Shiv Sena fought the 2019 assembly elections together, but the Shiv Sena broke ties with the BJP over the chief minister's post. Later, it became part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising the Congress and the (undivided) NCP. The MVA government was led by Thackeray.

The Rajya Sabha MP, considered a critic of the BJP, said the former ally could not see Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister in 2019, so its leaders conspired to topple his government. He said that as the government had a majority of 170 MLAs, it was not possible for their 'Operation Lotus' to succeed. That is why central agencies entered the battlefield.

He said, "Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik and Sanjay Raut were targeted." The federal agency had set a political agenda and made a list of MVA leaders to be arrested in Maharashtra. The book claimed that the list included Deshmukh, Malik and Raut. Both Deshmukh and Malik are from the NCP and were ministers in the Thackeray government. The ED had cracked down on 11 of the 40 MLAs (including Shinde) of the undivided Shiv Sena who had revolted against Thackeray. Raut claimed that the ED was also going to arrest some MPs of the undivided Shiv Sena.