MUMBAI: Accusing the BJP of failing to keep its word and commitment, former Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul on Tuesday said that if he is not made governor in 15 days, he would file a curative petition in the Supreme Court in the matter related to former BJP MP Navneet Rana‘s caste certificate. The SC had in April this year held Rana’s caste certificate to be valid.
In 2019, Rana had, as a candidate supported by the NCP, defeated the Shiv Sena’s Adsul from the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency.Adsul had challenged the validity of her caste certificate. After CM Eknath Shinde’s rebellion, Adsul joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Rana contested as BJP-Mahayuti candidate from Amravati in this year’s LS election and lost.
Adsul said that he was promised a gubernatorial assignment by Union home minister Amit Shah in the presence of Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in writing. Before the LS polls, he said, the BJP had promised two Union cabinet posts and two governor’s posts to the Shinde-led Sena, but it had failed to keep it promise. He added that a letter with his name for governorship was also signed by Shinde and Fadnavis and sent to the Centre, but his name did not figure on the list of nine new governors recently named by the Centre.
Adsul said the Sena had got only one Union minister of state (MoS) berth. “It is BJP’s responsibility to fulfil the promises made. I can’t wait forever. I will move the SC and challenge the stay given in former MP Navneet Rana’s caste certificate case,” he said.
Recently, in the reconstituted NITI Aayog, Sena MPs or its lone Union minister of state with independent charge Prataprao Jadhav didn’t get a place. After this, when President Droupadi Murmu appointed governors to nine states, including former state assembly speaker and BJP man Haribhau Bagade who was appointed governor of Rajasthan, no senior functionary from Sena was picked. Adsul had earlier said in the wake of this development that he was still hopeful and was expecting that he would become governor in the next round when more governors were appointed.