Mumbai: Eknath Shinde, who is involved in the Maharashtra political crisis, questioned Sena’s position on “Hindutva and the Ram Mandir” and said that party MLAs were barred from travelling to Ayodhya during Aaditya Thackeray’s visit to the temple town.
Eknath Shinde, a rebel Shiv Sena MLA, dropped yet another bombshell on Uddhav Thackeray, alleging that the Chief Minister was still unavailable to party legislators, keeping the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which is currently in power, on its toes.
Shinde questioned Sena’s stance on “Hindutva and Ram Mandir” while posting a letter from a rebel leader on Twitter with the description “this is the mood of MLAs.” He said that party MLAs were barred from travelling to Ayodhya during Aaditya Thackeray’s visit to the temple town.
“Despite having a Shiv Sena CM in the state the party MLAs didn’t use to get the opportunity to visit Varsha Bungalow (CM’s residence). People around the CM used to decide if we can meet him or not. We felt we were insulted,” the letter read.
“While we weren’t able to meet the CM, people from our ‘real opposition’ — the Congress and the NCP — used to get opportunities to meet him and even funds were given to them related to work in their constituencies,” it added.
Shinde’s response comes a day after Thackeray, in an emotional address, said he is ready to resign from the post of Chief Minister if the party MLAs want him to do so. However, 61-year-old Thackeray appealed to the rebel MLAs to return to Mumbai, adding that he will also leave the post of Shiv Sena chief. “I am ready to give my resignation to the MLAs, they should come here and take my resignation to Raj Bhavan. I am ready to leave the post of Shiv Sena party head also, not on the saying of others but my workers,” Thackeray said.
Shinde is legislative party chief
Earlier in the day, rebel Shiv Sena MLAs wrote a letter to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and passed a resolution that Shinde continues to be the legislative party chief. Shinde was removed by the Sena as the party’s legislative party leader after his rebellion.
In their resolution, the rebel MLAs said the party’s ideology has been compromised in the past couple of years. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with “corruption in government,” referring to Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, who are currently in jail.
“Apart from the above reasons, our party cadre faced tremendous harassment and distress on political as well as personal grounds from the Opposition Ideological Parties, who are now a part of the Government and were using their office and power to undermine the base and foundation of the our Shiv Sena cadre,” the letter reads.