ECONOMY

Ravindra Waikar: Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Ravindra Waikar joins Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena


In a jolt to the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction a MLA and close aide of Uddhav Thackeray has joined the Shiv Sena (shinde). Ravindra Waikar the Jogeshwari MLA was welcomed on Sunday by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at his official residence ‘Varsha’.

The development was in the offing for a while with the UBT camp claiming earlier in February that its MLAs like Waikar were under pressure to switch sides to the Shinde camp due to the probes by the central agencies. Waikar’s entry into the Shiv Sena would hurt the UBT faction as he was not just close to Uddhav but also had business interests with the Thackeray family. Waikar had entered into buying several land parcels with the Thackerays which BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had been raising. Waikar was also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate for constructing a hotel on a plot of land that was reserved by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for a garden.

Significantly while Waikar’s entry into the Shiv Sena was being talked about for a while, the Jogeshwari MLA on Sunday surprised many as he was present to welcome Uddhav

Thackeray at the UBT party office in Jogeshwari. Waikar had been absent for several party functions since February sparking talk that he was headed to Shiv Sena.

Waikar’s problems with the Enforcement Directorate stemmed due to him building a five star hotel at the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link road which was reserved for a garden. During the MVA government tenure the Jogeshwari MLA had received permission to build a 14 storeyed hotel. While the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police had filed an FIR and the ED subsequently was probing the case for money laundering against Waikar. The MLA got unexpected relief from the state government in February.

The BMC filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court in February expressing its willingness to reconsider Waikar’s representation for the construction of the five star hotel. The BMC’s affidavit came after Waikar had approached the Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court on September 8, 2023 dismissed the UBT MLA’s plea against the BMC’s move to cancel permission for building the 5 star hotel.State NCP President Jayant Patil claimed Waikar was forced to join the Shinde camp with the help of the cases against him. The opposition claim notwithstanding there are more troubles in store for the UBT camp and questions are being raised over Uddhav Thackeray’s style of running the party. On Sunday its Guhagar MLA Bhaskar Jadhav claimed in a party meeting in his constituency that there was a lot of ‘injustice’ against him within the party. “ I should have been made a minister in 2019 itself when the party came to power. I was the senior most MLA. It was my right. Even after the party split I should have been made the party leader.”said Jadhav indicating that he too is evaluating his options.


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