Shinde fires veiled barbs at Raut in his maiden speech after trust vote win

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday took potshots at a "coterie" surrounding Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and launched a veiled attack on Sena MP Sanjay Raut who had harshly criticised the rebel MLAs when they were camping in Guwahati.

Someone described us as bulls (male buffaloes) to be offered to Goddess Kamakhya in Guwahati. The goddess told us that she does not want a bull that talks too much, Shinde told the Assembly after the government led by him won the floor test.

During their stay at a starred hotel in Guwahati, the breakaway MLAs had written an open letter in which they slammed the coterie surrounding Thackeray and singled out Raut, calling him the "blue-eyed boy of NCP".

At the time of the Rajya Sabha elections held on June 10, one candidate of Shiv Sena lost. Now it feels like another candidate should have lost the election, the chief minister said.

Of the two candidates fielded by the Sena in the RS polls, Raut won but another nominee Sanjay Pawar lost to BJP's Dhananjay Mahadik.

Shinde loyalist Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil also took a veiled dig at Raut.

We were called pigs but people forgot that he (Raut) won the Rajya Sabha election on our own votes. A coterie of three-four people is surrounding Uddhav Thackeray. They could win at the hustings but they call us pigs. Why should we tolerate such foul language?" Patil asked.