Sanjay Raut claims Amit Shah is Lawrence Bishnoi at Sena (UBT) Dussehra rally, targets Shinde faction

Speaking at the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Dussehra rally in Mumbai, MP Sanjay Raut said no person named Lawrence Bishnoi exists. According to Raut, Home Minister Amit Shah runs all the mafia in the country and he is Lawrence Bishnoi. The rally was held at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Maidan, also known as Shivteerth, where Raut addressed the gathering.

Raut said weapons had now passed into the hands of goons, and that the chiefs of those goons were Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis. He said there was only one answer to this, the Shiv Sena, and that whoever takes the Shiv Sena's name will be protected. Raut also predicted that at the next Dussehra rally, the bow and arrow symbol would be with them here.

Raut called the Eknath Shinde faction's rally a "rally of goods for sale". He flared up at a question on there being two Shiv Sena rallies in the state. He said he told the journalist who asked about two rallies to "shut up". Raut said there is only one Shiv Sena, and it is Balasaheb Thackeray's. He said the people sitting before him were "durable goods", while those who went over to the other side were "goods for sale". He said what rally could there be on the other side, as they would be playing dandiya, and that they have no ideas or struggle.

Issuing a direct warning to the Shinde faction, Raut said everyone here has a bamboo stick in hand and the traitors would not even know where it landed. He said that in the past 60 years many people had tried to take on this Shiv Sena, big names had come and gone, but this crowd had never ebbed.

Noting that the Shiv Sena's Dussehra rally had completed 60 years, Raut recalled the sacrifice of the 106 martyrs for Mumbai. He said every generation was burning with the ideas of Balasaheb.

Raut also said that, as in Italy and France, people had now taken to the streets in India too. According to him, nobody fears Modi and Shah any more; on the contrary, the two fear the people. He predicted that the Modi government would go in the last week of next April.

Party deputy leader Sushma Andhare said that between 1993 and 1995 the Manohar Joshi and Gopinathrao Munde coalition government had broken the back of the underworld in Mumbai with a "bullet for bullet" policy. She said the BJP, desperate for power, had now become helpless before criminals. Andhare said Baba Siddique is murdered on a busy road, Purnekar is killed, and the Bishnoi gang openly claims responsibility after firing at the homes of Salman Khan, Rohit Shetty and Tiger Shroff. According to Andhare, the gang also questions the standing of the Home Ministry. She said: "Devendraji, speaking on law and order is beyond you."

At the rally, Uddhav Thackeray also challenged Chief Minister Fadnavis. He said: "My challenge to Chief Minister Fadnavis is, if you have the courage, pull Lawrence Bishnoi down from the Gujarat jail, bring him to Mumbai and teach him a lesson. Do not make big claims, take action."