Looks like dance of monkeys: Owaisi on Maha political crisis

New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday equated the ongoing political turmoil in Maharashtra with the “dance of monkeys” and said he is keeping an eye on the “unfolding drama”.

The political turbulence in Maharashtra was triggered by the faction war in Shiv Sena after MLA Eknath Shinde flew to Surat with some MLAs and then to Guwahati where he claims 38 MLAs of the party have accompanied, thus achieving the two-thirds majority in the Shiv Sena.

Speaking to ANI, Owaisi said, “Let Maha Vikas Aghadi deliberate over this matter. They should hit the roads. They should decide if they should. I am no one to decide. We are keeping an eye on the unfolding drama. It looks like a dance of monkeys. They are acting like monkeys jumping from one branch to another.”

Earlier today, the Shinde faction named their faction as ‘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.

“CM Uddhav Thackeray has said that the leaders who have left Shiv Sena should not ask for votes in the name of Shiv Sena and Balasaheb Thackeray. Ask for votes in the name of your father. Maha Vikas Aghadi is united,” Sanjay Raut said earlier.

“People will come to know what actions will be taken against those who have left the party by the evening. The work that CM Uddhav Thackeray has done is commendable. We will all fight the elections under his leadership,” he added.

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 two-thirds majority while denying merger talks with any party.

“We are still in Shiv Sena, there is a misunderstanding that we have left the party. We have just separated our faction. We have the two-thirds majority to follow the path we wanted. Our new leader is chosen by the majority. They didn’t have more than 16-17 MLAs,” Kesarkar said.

“There’s no need to merge, our faction will be given different recognition and we aren’t merging with any other party. Recognition should be given to our faction, if it isn’t given, we will go to court and prove our existence and numbers. We have numbers, but we respect CM Uddhav Thackeray, we won’t speak against him. We must follow the path on which we fought Assembly elections,” he added.

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.