Kadam's claims on Bal Thackeray's death declaration bid to deflect attention from current issues: Parab

Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam's claim regarding Bal Thackeray's body was aimed at diverting attention from issues being faced by Maharashtra, former Sena (UBT) minister Anil Parab said on Saturday.

Kadam has caused a flutter, claiming that the Sena patriarch's body was kept at Matoshree (his residence in suburban Bandra) for two days (before his death was formally announced) in 2012.

Addressing a press conference, Parab said he would file a defamation suit for making false claims about their ''deity'', Bal Thackeray. The money claimed through damages will go to rain-hit farmers, he added. Hitting back, Kadam said he will seek a CBI probe into this matter and write to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The intention is to poison people's minds about Uddhav Thackeray. The Shiv Sena (led by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde) knows they cannot win BMC polls, Parab said.

''The charges made by Ramdas Kadam are aimed at deflecting attention from issues Maharashtra is currently facing,'' he said.

Parab demanded that narco tests be conducted on Kadam's claims and also to understand how his wife was burnt in 1993.

Kadam, meanwhile, clarified that his wife got burnt in Khed while cooking on a stove. He said he suffered injuries while trying to save his wife. The Shiv Sena leader said he would file a defamation suit against Parab for making baseless claims about his wife.

Parab wondered why Kadam agreed to become a minister from (undivided) Shiv Sena in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government in 2014-19 if he thinks Uddhav Thackeray is a bad person. Parab recalled that it was Shiv Sena (undivided) that fielded Kadam's son Yogesh in the assembly elections in 2019. He is now a minister of state in the Fadnavis government.

''When did Shiv Sena pramukh (Bal Thackeray) die? Why was Shiv Sena pramukh's body kept at Matoshree for two days? I slept on a bench at Matoshree for eight days (when Bal Thackeray was seriously ill)'', Kadam had said while addressing the Shiv Sena's Dussehra rally on Thursday. He demanded Uddhav Thackeray's response.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders had dismissed Kadam's allegations as baseless. The rivalry between the Kadam father-son duo and Parab goes back to the time when the latter was the guardian minister of Ratnagiri from 2019-2022. This was also the time when Kadam was part of the undivided Shiv Sena. The bitterness between the two increased after Ramdas Kadam's son, Yogesh, joined the rebel MLA group led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The revolt led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government and a split in the Shiv Sena.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)