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Maharashtra Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday took a potshot on the Eknath Shinde-led faction of rebel MLAs and said that they should not use Shiv Sena's name to exhort voters for votes.
He added that rebel MLAs should use their fathers' names instead to appeal for votes. 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 claims of having the support of 38 MLAs of the party, thus achieving the two-thirds majority in the Shiv Sena. Interestingly, the Shinde faction named their group '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. Eknath Shinde claims to have the support of 38 MLAs of the 56 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. Meanwhile, rebel Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar claimed that their faction has a two-thirds majority while denying merger talks with any party. Notably, Eknath Shinde was unanimously elected as the leader of the faction recently which is revolting against the Uddhav faction. The Uddhav Thackeray faction recently submitted a plea before the Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker to disqualify 12 rebel MLAs. (ANI)
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