Thorat's opinion is what matters, says Sachin Sawant on Sanjay Raut's claim

Congress leader Sachin Sawant on Thursday said that the party's state president Balasaheb Thorat had already expressed his views on Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut's recent claim on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi meeting underworld don Karim Lala and that Thorat's "opinion is what matters".

"All people in Congress have their own view, but our state president has already said and his opinion is what matters," Sawant said when asked about party colleagues Milind Deora and Sanjay Nirupam's comments on Sanjay Raut's claim.

Earlier Thorat said, "His (Raut's) statement was wrong but he has retracted it so the matter ends. He should be careful in future. We had made him (Uddhav Thackeray) aware of this."

Party leader and former Mumbai unit chief Milind Deora termed Raut's remark an "ill-informed statement". On the other hand, Sanjay Nirupam warned Raut that he will have to repent if he propagates against Gandhi.

Raut triggered controversy after he claimed that Indira Gandhi used to go and meet yesteryear don Karim Lala, who operated in smuggling, narcotics, gambling, forced property evictions and extortion rackets in Mumbai for over two decades.

"There was a time when Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Sharad Shetty used to decide who would be Police Commissioner of Mumbai and who would sit in the 'Mantralaya'. Indira Gandhi used to go and meet Karim Lala. We have seen that underworld, now it's just 'chillar'," Raut had said.