NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and his daughter and party leader Supriya Sule met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his residence in Mumbai in the evening even as the state government is facing a massive crisis following the open rebellion by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde.
The meeting came soon after Thackeray addressed the people of Maharashtra on his Facebook page and said he is ready to resign from the post if the rebel MLAs tell him that they don't want him to continue as CM.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government is on the brink of collapse after Shinde revolted against his party and left Mumbai with a sizeable number of MLAs on Monday night.
Shinde is reportedly firm on his demand that the Sena should come out of the MVA alliance and join hands with the BJP to form the government.
On Wednesday, the rebel leader even claimed that his is the real Shiv Sena and asserted that he has the support of 46 legislators, including some independents.
In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, Shiv Sena has 55 MLAS, NCP (53), Congress (44), Bahujan Vikas Agahdi (three), Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party two each. MNS, CPI-M, PWP, Swabhimani Paksha, Rashtriya Samaj Party, Jansurajya Shakti Party and Krantikari Shetkari Paksha have one MLA each. There are 13 independent MLAs.
The opposition BJP has 106 MLAs.
Shinde, along with his loyal MLAs, left Mumbai soon after the results of Maharashtra Legislative Council polls were announced on Monday night. They were camping at a hotel in Surat before being flown to Guwahati on Wednesday morning.
