Santosh Bangar, the MLA who cried for Uddhav Thackeray and then switched sides

Eknath Shinde, the new Maharashtra chief minister, on Monday won the floor test with 164 votes, 20 above the number of votes needed. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. While the numbers favoured Shinde all along, another Shiv Sena MLA switched sides – one who shed a few tears for Uddhav Thackeray last week. It came as yet another shocker to the Thackeray-led faction when an ardent follower, Santosh Bangar, was seen with Shinde and the rebel MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly. Bangar jumped ship ahead of the crucial floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly. Late on Sunday, the legislator went to the hotel in Mumbai where the new chief minister was staying with the MLAs supporting him and officially defected to the rival camp, reports NDTV. Interestingly, on 24 June, when Uddhav Thackeray was fighting to keep MLAs from joining the Shinde camp, Bangar posted a video addressing people in his constituency, weeping with folded hands asking his followers to stand by the Thackerays, according to an NDTV report. The video showed Bangar weeping, as he declared his allegiance to Thackeray in the face of what he called “betrayal”. He even pleaded with Shinde to come back. A supporter wiped his face with a handkerchief.

आज मतदारसंघांमध्ये परत आल्यानंतर उपस्थित शिवसैनिकांना संबोधित करताना अश्रू अनावर झाले....शेवटच्या श्वासापर्यंत आदरणीय शिवसेना पक्षप्रमुख #उद्धव_ठाकरे साहेबा सोबत. @ShivSena @AUThackeray pic.twitter.com/loMHpUI4cL

— आमदार संतोष बांगर (@santoshbangar_) June 24, 2022

“Balasaheb Thackeray, Uddhav-ji Thackeray tum aage badho, hum tumhare saath hain (Uddhav Thackeray, carry on, we are with you),” the MLA chanted, drawing cheers from the crowd. Here’s what we know about the latest Sena rebel, Santosh Laxmanrao Bangar. The Shiv Sena Kalamnuri MLA was born on 17 June 1981 in Wanjarwada and currently lives in Wanjarwada, Hingoli district. He studied until Class VI from Manik Memorial Aary School, Hingoli in 1994-95. Bangar grabbed the headlines last year after he broke his 90-lakh rupees fixed deposit, which he claimed would be used to buy Remdesivir injections for the needy during the pandemic. Switching sides Bangar was appointed the Shiv Sena Hingoli district president in 2017 and in 2019 he was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly where he won by over 16,000 votes. Bangar was offered Rs 100 crore to join the Shinde group, according to a Shiv Sena activist, reports Maharashtra Times. Some of the controversies surrounding him

• In 2019, Bangar embarrassed the Shiv Sena by participating in a march in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens at the very time when the Sena was trying to back away from their initial support of the decisions and had assured that the state would not set up any detention centre to house the so-called illegal immigrants.
• Bangar took on Narayan Rane after he said that he would slap Uddhav. “We have the strength to come and bash you at your house. You keep your police protection aside. I, Santosh Bangar, a Sena activist will come alone and if I don’t remove your guts then I will never take my name again,” Bangar told local channels.
• Earlier this year, Bangar had levelled serious allegations against Bahujan Aghadi president Prakash Ambedkar. He accused Prakash Ambedkar of taking Rs 1,000 crore from the BJP in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

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