There will be no separate Shiv Sena faction consisting of the dissident Maharashtra MLAs, rebel party leader and legislator Eknath Shinde told CNN-News18 on Saturday after reports claimed the group had announced a ‘new division’ called the ‘Shiv Sena Balasaheb’.
“We are Balasaheb’s Shivsainiks. We haven’t taken any decision to make a separate group,” Shinde told CNN-News18. The clarification came amid claims that a separate group had been formed. Former MoS Home and rebel MLA Deepak Kesarkar had told earlier told ANI that a new group ‘Shiv Sena Balasaheb’ had been formed by Shinde.
Sources had also claimed of such a development earlier to CNN-News18. Reacting to the reports, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said “nobody can use the Shiv Sena name or Balasaheb Thackeray’s name” for their group.
Maharashtra Congress leader Ashok Chavan also weighed in at the turn of events, and said that until such a group got legal authorization from the Speaker, they would not be authorised.
From Tuesday, Maharashtra’s ruling alliance – the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – started battling its worst crisis since coming into existence in 2019 after Shinde rebelled against the party and herded some MLAs, initially to Gujarat and later to Assam, both BJP-ruled states.
The crisis, which erupted hours after the Legislative Council polls held on June 20, which saw the opposition BJP managing to get its fifth candidate elected. Shinde had gone incommunicado following the results.
He and a group of rebel MLAs first stayed in Gujarat. Since Wednesday, he has been camping in a Guwahati hotel along with at least 38 rebel MLAs of the Sena and 10 independents. Their rebellion became public on June 21 morning.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena has sent the names of four more rebel MLAs to the Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker for initiating action of disqualification against them, a senior leader had told PTI.
Commenting on the same, Shinde said the rebel MLAs will take up a legal battle against the Deputy speaker if he moves to disqualify them.
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