CONTROVERSIAL: Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut claims 'Indira Gandhi met with don Karim Lala'

In a massive statement against Maha Vikas Aghadi ally Congress, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday claimed that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi met with underworld don Karim Lala, in an interview with a local marathi news ncy. Talking about past influence of underworld over Mumbai, he claimed that underworld decided who will be city's commissioner and in state secretariat. Moreover, he claimed that entire secretriat would meet don Haji Mastan when he was in town.

Raut: Indira met with Karim Lala

"y (underworld) used to decide who will be Mumbai's police commissioner and who will sit in Mantralaya (state secretariat)," Raut said. He added, "When (underworld don) Haji Mastan came to Mantralaya, entire secretariat would come down to see him. Indira Gandhi used to meet Karim Lala in Pydhonie (in south Mumbai)". Congress is yet to comment on Raut's statement.

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Karim Lala was one of three top underworld dons of Mumbai for over two decades, from sixties to early eighties, or two being Mastan Mirza alias Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudaliar. Raut claimed he clicked pictures of many gangsters, including Dawood Ibrahim, adding that he had once even rebuked gangster. Incidentally, Shiv Sena which was founded in 1960s, has held power over Mumbai since 1985.

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Discontent after Cabinet expansion

This comment comes amid discontent among Sena-NCP-Congress after expansion of Maharashtra cabinet with Sena MP Sanjay Raut reportedly unhappy as his bror Sunil Raut missed out on a Cabinet berth. Sena members feel that NCP has walked away with t only highest number of portfolios but also most important ones as Sena, for example, had to cede Home and Finance portfolio.  Shiv Sena's 13 ministers (10 - cabinet, 3 - MoS), NCP's 13 ministers (10 - cabinet, 3 - MoS) and Congress' 10 ministers (8 - cabinet, 2 - MoS) took oath on December 31 at 12 PM in Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.

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Maha Vikas Aghadi

35-year alliance of Shiv Sena and BJP fell post-Assembly elections squabbling over a 50-50 power-sharing and shared CM post. While Sena was in final talks with Congress-NCP to form Maha Vikas Aghadi, Fadnavis with Ajit Pawar took oath. This BJP-NCP government lasted for four days, failing to win trust vote, leading to Uddhav Thackeray being sworn in as first Thackeray CM. Maha Vikas Aghadi have a 'secular' common minimum programme making it imperative for all parties to take a united stance on national issues - this has been a bone of contention several times for Hindutva supporting Shiv Sena.

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(With PTI inputs)