Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, along with several other MLAs, on Tuesday went incommunicado and rebelled against the party, sending the major political outfits into a huddle. While the MVA alliance is trying to bring back the MLAs, the BJP is keeping a close eye on these 'rebel' MLAs. Now in a massive development,34 rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena have now signed a resolution under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, expressing their discontent with the party, and demanded to retain Shinde as leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature party. This comes after Shiv Sena sent out an ultimatum to all its MLAs ahead of an emergency meeting at 5 pm at CM's residence.
Copies of the letter have been sent to the Governor, the Deputy Speaker and the Vidhan Sabha secretary. The MLAs reaffirmed that "Eknath Shinde, who was appointed as the Leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party on 31.10.2019, is and continues to be the Leader of the Maharashtra Shiv Sena Legislature Party of the 14th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly." The rebel group has also highlighted in the letter how the Shiv Sena has compromised on party principles by 'aligning with contrasting ideologies for the sake of achieving power in the State of Maharashtra'. "The ideology of our party's leader late Balasaheb Thackeray was to give a clean and honest government to the people of Maharashtra, and also without compromising on the principles of Hindutva, which was defeated on the first day itself by aligning with the Opposing ideologies," the resolution read. The development comes hours after Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut dropped a mega hint on his Twitter suggesting that the Maharashtra Government may be moving towards dissolving the state assembly. Posting a cryptic tweet on Wednesday, Sanjay Raut wrote, "The journey of political developments in Maharashtra (moving) towards the dismissal of Vidhan Sabha..." This suggests that the Uddhav Thackery-led government may dissolve the assembly as its numbers slip into a minority.