Shiv Sena compares Maharashtra's Advocate General with Hafeez Saeed

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said making Shreehari Aney Maharashtra's Advocate General (AG) was like appointing alleged Pakistani terrorist Hafeez Sayeed as Pakistan’s High Commissioner (HC) to India.

"The day (Shreehari) Aney first spoke about granting separate statehood for Vidharbha, he should have been asked to go," Raut said in his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"Appointing Shreehari Aney as the state lawyer is like appointing Hafeez Sayeed as Pakistan's High Commissioner in New Delhi," he said.

Raut alleged that not even the Mughal harmed Maharashtra as much the remarks of splitting the state do.

Drawing an analogy from horse racing characters Bookies and Punters, the Shiv Sena leader said for a Punter victory of the popular horse is must.

"However, for the Bookie the victory is damaging. In the case of Aney, the bookie and the punter were one and the same. New smaller states would mean additional non-plan expenditure for creating political posts like Governor, chief minister, ministers, secretariat, employees, official residences and other infrastructure facilities," Raut said.

"The same money can be used for construction of schools, hospitals, industries, roads, communication infrastructure and other purposes," he added.

Raut further said instead of setting up States Reorganisation Commission for carving out new states, thought should be given to how the number of existing states is reduced.

He also recommended that Goa should be merged with Maharashtra, Diu-Daman, Dadra-Nagar-Havelli needs to be merged with Gujarat, Puducherry and Port Blair be merged with Tamil Nadu and states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh be redrawn again.

On March 22, under attack for favouring a separate Marathwada state, the then Maharashtra AG Aney had resigned but ruled out any apology asserting that he stood by his view.