New Delhi: Two suspected turncoat Shiv Sena MLAs recounted the tale of how they ‘escaped’ from the rebel’s camp, led by senior minister Eknath Shinde in a hotel in Gujarat’s Surat, and reached Maharashtra safely in the past 24 hours, news agency IANS reported. Sena MLAs Kailas Patil from Osmanabad and Nitin Deshmukh from Akola claimed that they were “misled and taken against their wishes” by the rebel group late on Monday.
Narrating his tale to the Sena bigwigs, Patil said that when the group of MLAs was heading for a purported party to Thane, he had a hunch something was amiss as the vehicle changed route and headed towards Gujarat from the Ghodbunder Road.
Patil said that under the pretext of relieving himself, he managed to get down at Talasari near Maharashtra-Gujarat border Police Check Post and taking advantage of the darkness, walked briskly for around 5km towards Mumbai and then managed to hitch a bike ride towards the state capital.
He also said that on his way, he called up Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and briefed him on the upcoming political crisis.
Patil finally reached the CM’s private residence in Bandra from where he was escorted to a safe house and has been put up there since.
Meanwhile, narrating his ordeal of survival and escape, Deshmukh claimed he was ‘kidnapped’ and taken to Surat by the rebels’ group which landed there during the night of Monday-Tuesday.
“Around 3am on Tuesday, I managed to escape from the hotel and went outside, to hitch a ride from some passing vehicles. I was pursued by over a hundred Gujarat Police personnel who prevented me from sitting in any vehicle and they forcibly took me to some hospital,” IANS quoted Deshmukh as saying.
According to the Sena MLA, he was administered some injection and some medical procedure was performed on his body, trying to prove he had suffered a ‘heart attack’, although he said he was perfectly fine.
“They treated me like some terrorist. Somehow, I could manage to flee the hospital and here I am – absolutely fit and fine, no heart problems as the police contended,” Deshmukh said.
Both the MLAs reiterated that they are with CM Thackeray and that there is no question of them joining anti-party activities or rebelling.
However, they couldn’t provide the exact number of rebels allegedly supporting Shinde though Deshmukh said “many more will return” to the Sena fold.
Notably, Deshmukh’s wife had lodged a missing complaint with the local police as he was unavailable on phone after 7pm on Monday.
Meanwhile, Sena Chief Spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said the treatment meted out to Patil and Deshmukh was condemnable.