Aaditya Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, has claimed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde cried in fear of being jailed by investigative agencies if he did not ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in June 2020. Shinde had led a rebellion of over 40 MLAs which toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut backed Aaditya’s claims, stating that he too had been told the same thing by Shinde. Raut added that the fear of imprisonment was “clearly visible” in Shinde’s “mind and heart”. Maharashtra Minister Deepak Kesarkar accused Aaditya of lying, suggesting he had a “professional team” that taught him to do so. BJP leader Narayan Rane dismissed Aaditya’s claims as “nonsense”.
