Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu has written a letter and issued it to some Sena ministers, including the minister of state for Home Shambhuraj Desai who is currently staying with Eknath Shinde in Guwahati
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. News18
Amid ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked all its MLAs in the state, including the rebels accompanying dissident leader Eknath Shinde, to attend a legislature party meeting in Mumbai at 5 pm or face action under the anti-defection law.
Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu has written a letter and issued it to some Sena ministers, including the minister of state for Home Shambhuraj Desai who is currently staying with Shinde in Guwahati. “The Shiv Sena has called for an urgent meeting today evening at ‘Varsha’ bungalow as there have been attempts to make the MVA government unstable. The details regarding the meeting have been shared with all the members (MLAs) on their registered e-mail address, Whatsapp and by way of SMS.
“You cannot remain absent to the meeting without providing a valid and sufficient reason. If you do not attend the meeting, it would be presumed that you have a clear intention of leaving the party. Hence, there will be action taken against you based on the provisions for preventing anti-defection,” the letter said.
‘Varsha’ is the official residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. A day earlier, the Sena had removed Shinde as its group leader in the Legislative Assembly.
However, Eknath Shinde has termed the order issued by Sunil Prabhu as ‘illegal’. “Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as the Chief Whip of Shiv Sena Legislative Party. So, the order issued by Sunil Prabhu, regarding the Legislative Party meeting this evening is illegal,” Shinde tweeted.
As the future of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government appears to be glooming, Uddhav Thackeray chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Thackeray, who tested positive for COVID-19, joined the meeting via video conferencing.
State cabinet minister Aslam Shaikh said only the cabinet agenda was discussed in the meeting and not the current political scenario. “Only cabinet agenda was discussed. No discussion on the present political situation took place at the cabinet meeting. Subhash Desai and Shankar Rao Gadakh were physically present. Chief Minister Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, Anil Parab and several others joined the meeting in virtual mode,” said Aslam Shaikh.
Earlier in the day, Shinde claimed that 46 MLAs, including six-seven Independent MLAs, are currently with him and the number is expected to rise in the time to come. He said that so far they have not received any proposal from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are not holding any talks with them.
“Right now we have 46 MLAs with us, including 6-7 Independent MLAs. Rest of them are Shiv Sena MLAs. This number will rise in the time to come. As of now we have neither received any proposal from BJP nor are we holding any talks with them,” Shinde said.
“As far as current political situation is concerned, I’d say that we are Balasaheb Thackeray’s Shiv Sainiks and will continue to be Shiv Sainiks. As of now, we are not holding any talks with Shiv Sena or CM. We have not decided on the future course of action,” he added.
The MLAs were taken to Surat in Gujarat from Mumbai on Tuesday, and the decision to shift them to Guwahati was taken on security grounds, according to a BJP source.
The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs in the Assembly.
A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was also held in Mumbai on Wednesday. The meeting was held at the residence of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Balasaheb Thorat. All India Congress Committees (AICC) observer Kamal Nath was also present at the meeting.
Following the meeting, Kamal Nath said, “41 out of 44 MLAs attended the meeting here while 3 are on the way. The politics BJP has started is of money and muscle power. It is against the constitution. I have seen this a lot. Unity will prevail in Shiv Sena under Udhhav Thackeray. I have talked to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and he said that as of now there is no proposal to dissolve the Maharashtra Assembly.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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