Three-and-a-half men, starring Sanjay Raut

Sanjay Raut will address the press at Sena Bhavan this afternoon

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has promised to expose the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Tuesday. He said the revelations will send "three-and-a -half" BJP leaders behind bars. "Bardasht bahut kiya, ab barbaad bhi karenge. There is a limit to politics [we have suffered a lot, now it's time to demolish them]," he said without disclosing the names.

Raut said the opposition camp had lost their sleep because they knew who he was talking about. Accompanied by senior party leaders, the Rajya Sabha MP will address a press conference at Shiv Sena Bhavan on Tuesday afternoon. "The BJP threatens us that our leaders will be doing time in the lock-up where [ex-home minister] Anil Deshmukh is kept, but he will be released soon [by the ED], and ‘three and a half' leaders of the BJP will go to the same lock-up," he said, adding, "Let's see who has the guts."

Sanjay Raut, Sena leader

The development is expected to take the fight between the BJP and MVA partners, the Sena in particular, to the next level before the Mumbai and other local body polls. Raut had said last week that after his Sena Bhavan interaction, he would address the media in front of the Enforcement Directorate's office, because the agency was being misused by the Centre to hound the Sena and MVA leaders, their families and friends.

He had written to the Rajya Sabha chairman making a serious charge that he was asked to be a party to a conspiracy to destabilise the MVA government and facilitate a mid-term Assembly poll, or else face ED action and be ready to spend a long time in jail like a former Union minister. He had said the service providers of his daughter's wedding were being forced on gunpoint to admit to having received huge cash payments from him.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who has made serious allegations against Raut, his family, business partners and MVA leaders, welcomed the MP's media conference, but raised further questions over the Sena spokesperson's link with some people who are being probed by the ED. "Raut doesn't have the guts to answer my questions. He is diverting the main issue," he said, reiterating the charges.