Nitin Deshmukh, who represents the Balapur Assembly constituency, said he was a Shiv Sainik of Uddhav Thackeray and Balasaheb Thackeray.
Nagpur/Mumbai: In another sensational twist amid the political storm in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena MLA Nitin Deshmukh, who was earlier presumed to have joined rebel Sena leader Eknath Shinde, has resurfaced voicing his support for Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. He claimed that he was “kidnapped” and taken to Gujarat’s Surat from where he escaped.
“I escaped and was standing on the road at around 3 in the morning trying to hitch a ride from passersby when over a hundred cops came and took me to a hospital. They pretended that I had a heart attack and tried to do some procedure on my body,” he said, adding that he did not suffer any sudden health complications.
One of the MLAs accompanying rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde in Surat reached Nagpur airport on Wednesday, claiming that he was “kidnapped”. Nitin Deshmukh, who represents the Balapur Assembly constituency, said he was a Shiv Sainik of Uddhav Thackeray and Balasaheb Thackeray.
The development comes as Eknath Shinde shifted from Surat to BJP-ruled Assam and asserted that 40 MLAs from Maharashtra had accompanied him. The rebellion has put a question mark on the stability of the MVA dispensation in Maharashtra.
“I am of course with Uddhav Thackeray,” Nitin Deshmukh declared when asked by a reporter about his allegiance. Deshmukh’s wife had on Tuesday filed a missing complaint in the local police station saying she suspected a threat to his life.
Pranjali, Deshmukh’s wife, had submitted a written complaint to the Akola Police Station saying she last spoke to her husband on a phone call at 7 pm on June 20 and hasn’t been able to communicate with him since as his phone has been switched off. She said she suspects there might be a threat to Deshmukh’s life.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had alleged that Nitin Deshmukh and some MLAs were kidnapped from Mumbai and taken to Gujarat.
“Two of the MLAs (with Shinde), including Nitin Deshmukh, were beaten up last night. Deshmukh tried to run away but he was beaten up by the police and goondas under ‘Operational Kamal’ and suffered a heart attack. Some of the MLAs have told us that they were misled and taken to Gujarat,” a news agency quoted Raut as saying.
Raut alleged that Shiv Sena MLAs had received at least four to five calls from their colleagues who told them that they were misled and requested their rescue. “At least four to five calls have been received by some MLAs of Sena. The caller MLAs said that they were being misled and kidnapped. They said that they were called for dinner in Thane (on Monday) and then taken away. Their family members have lodged police complaints about their husbands and fathers going missing,” Raut had said.
