Eknath Shinde's supporters blacken posters of Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Amid rising political turmoil in Maharashtra, supporters of rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde blackened posters of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Thane on Sunday. On the other hand, Shiv Sena workers held 'joote maro andolan' against rebel Shiv Sena MLAs in Pune, Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Shiv Sena workers held bike rallies to protest against the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs outside the Saamana office.

The political turbulence in Maharashtra was triggered by the faction war in Shiv Sena after Minister Eknath Shinde flew to Surat with some MLAs and then to Guwahati where he claimed of having the support of 38 MLAs of the 55 Shiv Sena legislators, which is more than two-thirds of the party's strength in the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. It means that they can either leave and form another political party or merge with another without being disqualified from the state assembly.

According to sources, Maharashtra deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal has sent notices to the 16 Shiv Sena rebel MLAs. The MLAs have to be present in Mumbai on Monday for the hearing of disqualification.

Notably, Zirwal has earlier approved the appointment of Ajay Choudhary as Shiv Sena Legislature Party leader, replacing Shinde, the state cabinet minister who rebelled against the Shiv Sena leadership. Zirwal also turned down the Shinde camp's suggestion to appoint rebel Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale as the chief whip of the legislature party in place of Sunil Prabhu.

Interestingly, the Shinde faction named their group as 'Shiv Sena Balasaheb'. The naming of the group after the name of the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray attracted sharp reactions from the Uddhav faction as the Chief Minister said that those who left the party should not seek votes in the name of the party founder.

Earlier on Saturday, rebel MLA Chimanrao Patil on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction over Shiv Sena's alliance with its "traditional rival" parties, Congress and NCP and said that they had urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to stitch a "natural alliance".

The leader, however, added that there was no response from the Chief Minister which is why Eknath Shinde, who is leading the faction, "took a stand".

"We are traditionally the rivals of NCP and Congress, they are our primary challengers in constituencies. We requested CM Uddhav Thackeray that natural alliance should be done," said Shiv Sena rebel MLA Chimanrao Patil in a video tweeted by Eknath Shinde. Patil claimed that the faction has the support of two-thirds of the Shiv Sena MLAs along with 10 independents.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction recently submitted a plea before the Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker to disqualify 12 rebel MLAs. The Shiv Sena national executive meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray adopted six resolutions as the political crisis deepens in Maharashtra.

"We strongly condemn the treachery that a few Shiv Sena legislators have displayed and express that the party and its organisation is strongly standing behind party leader Uddhav Thackeray. The party gives all the rights to Thackeray to exercise control over the emerging scenario and to implement decisions required for the same," the resolution read.

"The national executive expresses its pride in the work Uddhav Thackeray has done as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the fame that he has earned for his taking care of the Maharashtra populace during Covid," read the second resolution adopted by the national executive.

According to another resolution, Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray are two sides of the same coin which are inseparable. Hence, besides Shiv Sena, no one else can use Balasaheb's name. Another resolution, Shiv Sena has always stayed true to Hindutva, the idea of a united Maharashtra and Marathi Asmita.

As rebels continue to camp in Guwahati, some of their offices were vandalised allegedly by Shiv Sena workers in Maharashtra. Following this, Shinde on Saturday wrote to Uddhav Thackeray over the alleged 'malicious' withdrawal of security of family members of the 38 MLAs camping with him in the Guwahati hotel.