Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday took a swipe at Eknath Shinde-led party of dissident MLAs and questioned how long they will hide in Guwahati in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam before they had to return to Mumbai amid the twists and turns in the political drama of Maharashtra.
After Minister Eknath Shinde traveled to Surat with a few MLAs and then to Guwahati where he claimed to have the backing of 38 MLAs of the party, gaining the two-thirds majority in the Shiv Sena, the faction war in the Shiv Sena set off the political unrest in Maharashtra. “Kab tak chhipoge Gauhati mein,” Raut said on Twitter.
Narhari Zirwal, the deputy speaker of Maharashtra, has delivered notices to the 16 Shiv Sena breakaway MLAs. The disqualification hearing must be attended by the MLAs on Monday in Mumbai.
Notably, Zirwal already gave his approval for Ajay Choudhary to succeed Shinde, the state cabinet member who disobeyed the Shiv Sena leadership, as head of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party.
Zirwal also rejected the Shinde camp’s proposal to replace Sunil Prabhu as the top whip of the parliamentary party with renegade Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale.
It’s interesting to note that the Shinde faction called itself the “Shiv Sena Balasaheb.”
As the Chief Minister stated that those who left the party should not seek votes in the name of the party founder, the Uddhav faction reacted angrily to the group’s name being taken from the founder of the Shiv Sena, Balasaheb Thackeray.
Earlier, Sanjay Raut remarked, “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena leaders who have left the organization shouldn’t solicit votes on behalf of the organization or Balasaheb Thackeray. Invoke your father’s name while requesting votes. The unified Maha Vikas Aghadi.”
“By the evening, people will learn what steps will be taken against individuals who quit the party. Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister, has done an excellent job. Under his direction, we shall all campaign for office” he added.
However, 38 out of the 56 Shiv Sena members, or more than two-thirds of the party’s strength in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, allegedly favour Eknath Shinde. It indicates that they won’t be barred from the state assembly if they decide to resign and start a new political party or join forces with another.
While dismissing merger negotiations with any party, renegade Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar said that his group had a two-thirds majority.
