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Veterans Sanjay Raut, Manohar Joshi, Subhash Desai dropped from Shiv Sena's panel of spokespersons

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Looks like Shiv Sena is going to reshuffle the organisation! At least that is what appears from the way it re-jigged its spokespersons on Friday, dropping veterans Sanjay Raut, Manohar Joshi and Subhash Desai, and inducting five new faces.

Sources in the party said its middle and lower rung leaders would be reshuffled next.

The new faces in its panel of spokespersons are South Mumbai MP Arvind Sawant, Purandhar MLA Vijay Shivtare, Manisha Kayande, actor Dr Amol Kolhe and Arvind Bhosale. MLC Neelam Gorhe is the only spokesperson who has been retained.

Meanwhile, Raut denied reports that being dropped from the panel was a setback. "For how many years can one do the same work? There are many responsibilities that I can take up. This is a minor thing. We are leaders of Shiv Sena; I was made a leader by (late Sena chief) Balasaheb," said Raut, adding that re-jig was aimed at giving new faces an opportunity. He said he would focus on building up party mouthpiece Saamna, of which he is the executive editor.

"We are leaders of the party, and will put forth Uddhavji's stand," he added.

Raut's editorial questioning the loyalty of Gujaratis to Maharashtra, which appeared in the newspaper on Maharashtra Day (May 1), turned out to be controversial; and an editorial comment on Maharashtrians stabbing Sena in the back during the 2009 assembly polls, was disowned by the party leadership later.

Raut is also said to be a strong votary of the need for Sena to sit in the opposition in Maharashtra.

Apart from Joshi, a former Lok Sabha speaker, and Desai, Sena's group leader in the assembly, who lost from his stronghold (Goregaon) to BJP's Vidya Thakur; Shweta Parulkar, who had shifted to Sena from rival MNS, has also been dropped from the panel.

A Sena leader said some party samparka pramukhs (outreach chiefs), who play a crucial role as a link between the leadership and local organisations across Maharashtra, and local-level office bearers may also have no make way for new faces.

Sena, which emerged the second largest party in the state with 63 seats, but with only (almost) half the number of estranged ally BJP, which has 122 MLAs, will also focus on further strengthening the organisation at the grassroots.

While Shivtare is a second-term MLA from Purandar, which falls under Pawar family's fiefdom of Baramati, Bhosale is a Sena functionary from Worli who shot into fame after pledging not to use footwear unless former Sena chief minister Narayan Rane, who defected to Congress in 2005, was defeated. Bhosale now wears chappals as Rane lost to Sena's Vaibhav Naik from Kudal.

Sawant shocked the then Union minister of state Milind Deora of Congress, and Kolhe is better known for his portrayal of warrior-king Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in a television seriel.

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