Rebel MLA Mahesh Shinde says NCP trying to systematically finish Shiv Sena in their constituencies

New Delhi: Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Mahesh Shinde on Saturday claimed that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is planning to “finish off” Shiv Sena.

He claimed that NCP MLAs were getting more funds than the Shiv Sena legislators for development work in their constituencies. The rebel MLA further claimed that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray failed to stop the disparity.

“As a result, the MLAs urged Eknath Shinde to play ‘big role’ to save Shiv Sena. Funds were unequally distributed and the CM was aware of it. CM’s directions were overturned by the Deputy CM. NCP was trying to systematically finish Shiv Sena in their constituencies. This led to the rebellion,” stated Shinde.

“NCP is planning to finish off Shiv Sena… We all MLAs repeatedly complained to CM about the injustice by NCP but to no avail. So we urged Eknath Shinde to play this big role to save Shiv Sena,” said Shinde.

“We weren’t invited to any programme. We met the CM thrice. The CM assured us. He gave a stay on many things, but the Deputy CM didn’t agree and did development work of our rivals and also inaugurated them. This continuously went on,” he added.

Eknath Shinde claims to have the support of 38 MLAs of the 55 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.

According to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with the anti-defection law, any group of lawmakers can leave a party and form another or merge with another party without disqualification if they are together at least two-thirds of legislators of the party’s original strength.

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.

As rebels continue to camp in Guwahati, some of their offices were vandalised allegedly by Shiv Sena workers in Maharashtra.

Following this, Shinde on Saturday wrote to Uddhav Thackeray over the alleged ‘malicious’ withdrawal of security of family members of the 38 MLAs camping with him in the Guwahati hotel.
In his letter to Thackeray and State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil, Shinde claimed that the security provided to the MLAs at their residence as well as to their family members as per the protocol has been illegally and unlawfully withdrawn, as an act of revenge.

“Needless to mention, this sinister move is another attempt to break our resolve and arm-twist us to give in to the demands of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comprising of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress goons,” he said.

Eknath Shinde faction, earlier on Friday, gave notice of a no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Narhari Jhirwal after the Uddhav Thackeray faction submitted a plea before the deputy speaker to disqualify 12 rebel MLAs.