Moving against the rebel elements in the party, Shiv Sena has sent the names of four rebel MLAs to the Maharashtra assembly deputy speaker for initiating action of disqualification against them. This came after the party provided names of 12 MLAs to the deputy speaker, including leader of the rebel camp Eknath Shinde, seeking their disqualification. The party will ask them to respond by Monday, Sena MP Arvind Sawant said.
The four legislators whose names were forwarded to the deputy speaker were Sanjay Raymulkar, Chiman Patil, Ramesh Bornare and Balaji Kalyankar. "Despite issuing a letter to them, none of them attended party meeting on Wednesday evening here in Mumbai," Sawant said. "Now, only Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray can decide about allowing their return to Sena, otherwise party doors are closed for them forever. They have betrayed the saffron flag," he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday had accused the dissident MLAs of betrayal and challenged them to try and wean away common party workers as he slammed rebel leader Eknath Shinde and also tore into the BJP, saying it wants to "finish off" his outfit and does not want to share its Hindu votebank. As the four-day-old political crisis, triggered due to a revolt by a group of Sena MLAs led by cabinet minister Shinde, showed no signs of heading towards a resolution, Thackeray upped the ante and said those who want to leave can do so and communicated directly with Shiv Sainiks and mid-level functionaries, and also met NCP president Sharad Pawar, whose party is the second largest constituent in the ruling MVA alliance.
Thackeray, whose government is also supported by the Congress, dared Shinde and the BJP to try and take away the Shiv Sena cadre and those who vote for the party. In a virtual address to party corporators, he said the common Shiv Sena workers were his "wealth", and as long as they were with him, he did not care about criticism by others. The Shiv Sena has been "betrayed by its own people," he said, as his two-and-a-half-year old coalition government faced a crisis after a majority of Sena MLAs joined Shinde, who is camping in Guwahati.
"We gave these rebels tickets to contest assembly elections despite many of you being aspirants for the same. These people are disgruntled after getting elected owing to your hard work, and you are standing by the party in this crucial time. I can't thank you enough," said Thackeray. "I had told Eknath Shinde to look into complaints regarding alliance partners. He told me that legislators were pressurising him that the Sena should join hands with the BJP. I told him to bring these MLAs to me, let's discuss this. The BJP treated us badly, didn't honour promises. Many of the rebels have cases filed against them. So if they go with the BJP, they will become clean, if they stayed with us, they will go to jail. Is this a sign of friendship?" Thackeray asked.
