“Only Their Bodies Will Come Back…”: Sanjay Raut Makes Controversial Comment On Rebels

“The bodies of these 40 MLAs will come here. They will be directly sent to the mortuary for postmortem,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said on Sunday.

Shiv Sena MP and CM Uddhav Thackeray’s closest aide Sanjay Raut, in a bid to save the sinking legislature of the party after rebellion led by Eknath Shinde, today lashed out at the rebels holed up in Assam’s Guwahati. “The one who betrays Balasaheb is finished… From now on, we have to decide who to trust and whose palanquin to carry. The bodies of these 40 MLAs will come here. They will be directly sent to the mortuary for postmortem,” he said in Mumbai today, declaring that he “doesn’t consider this a crisis,” Mr Raut said on Sunday.

“When I see the photos, Radisson Blu doesn’t look like a hotel, it seems like the Bigg Boss house. People are drinking, eating, playing. And half of them will be eliminated… Till when will you hide in Guwahati, you will have to come back to Chowpatty,” he added.

In a comment that has sparked a backlash, Mr Raut said: “The 40 people who are there are living corpses. Only their bodies will come back here, there soul will be dead. When these 40 people step out here, they won’t be alive at heart. They know what can happen in the fire that has been lit here. This is the Shiv Sena, and it has only 1 father. And you cannot steal a father. They want to split Maharashtra in 3 parts. We will not let that happen.”

In similar remarks made earlier, the Saamana editor had said that the MLAs, when they come back to Maharashtra for a floor test, they “will find it difficult to return and move around”.

In response to Raut’s comment, Eknath Shinde had penned down a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil. Signed by 16 MLAs, the letter pointed out that it was job of the government to ensure security of the MLAs.