“Bjp deliberately hurt sentiment and suppress our voice”, says Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut

To humiliate me

NEW DELHI : The Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut has written to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu complaining that his seating in the Rajya Sabha has been changed to “humiliate” him and “deliberately hurt sentiment and suppress our voice”. The Shiv Sena has accused the ruling BJP, its estranged ally, of shifting its seats in parliament after their acrimonious split over the Maharashtra power tussle.

“I was astonished to know that my seating position in the Rajya Sabha chamber (has been) changed from 3rd to 5th row. This decision was taken by someone deliberately to hurt Shiv Sena’s sentiments and suppress our voice,” wrote an upset Sanjay Raut, pointing out that he had been a senior member of the Rajya Sabha since 2004.

“I also fail to understand the reason for this unwarranted step of reallocation of seats since there is no formal announcement about removal from the NDA,” said Mr Raut in the letter to Mr Naidu, who is chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He said he had been moved two rows back “intentionally to humiliate me and my party’s status”. The Shiv Sena has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and three members in the Rajya Sabha.