Shinde revolted after spat over using Sena votes for Congress?
Two days after Eknath Shinde rebelled against Shiv Sena after an alleged altercation with his colleagues, party insiders claimed the quarrel over using additional votes for Congress candidates in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections, which Shinde opposed, The Indian Express reported. The polls saw one of Congress's candidates Bhai Jagtap winning after obtaining the required votes. However, the other candidate—Chandrakant Handore—wasn't elected.
Shinde apparently had a heated argument with Sena's Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray when talks for votes for the MLC elections were taking place. "Shinde was not amenable to the idea of using votes of Sena MLAs to get Congress candidates elected... It turned into a heated argument," sources told The Indian Express, adding this appeared to be a deciding factor for Shinde's revolt.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena sacked Shinde as its Legislative Party Leader in the Maharashtra Assembly. This came after Shinde and 11 Sena MLAs took a chartered flight to Surat from where they flew to Assam's Guwahati by Wednesday morning. Notably, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance also faced a setback in the MLC polls on Monday.
There were 11 candidates in the fray for 10 MLC seats. Five BJP candidates and two each from Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—including former BJP leader Khadse—won, while Congress managed to get only one seat. Congress's Bhai Jagtap secured enough votes in the second round. However, the party's second candidate, Handore, failed to get more second preference votes and lost the seat.
Congress candidates secured 41 preference votes of the 44 votes the party had. "No one can be blamed when we don't get our first preference votes. We have to look within," Congress leader and state minister Balasaheb Thorat had said. On the other hand, Congress's Sanjay Nirupam had said there was an "internal sabotage," while NCP leader Jayant Patil alleged there was horse-trading.
Amid the apparent turmoil in the Sena camp, an anonymous state Congress minister on Tuesday claimed that Shinde wants to become the deputy chief minister and hence there has been unrest within the Sena for about a week now. Earlier, Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray called a meeting of the party MLAs on Tuesday, sources told news agency PTI.
Meanwhile, Shinde has also dropped "Shiv Sena" from his Twitter bio and taken an apparent dig at the party for joining hands with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party to form the MVA alliance in Maharashtra. However, he tweeted, "We are Balasaheb's staunch Shiv Sainiks... We have never and will never cheat for power regarding Balasaheb's thoughts and Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Saheb's teachings."
Shinde claimed on Wednesday that he has 40 MLAs with him, adding that they will carry Balasaheb Thackeray's Hindutva. His remarks came as speculations are rife that they might join the BJP in a bid to topple the MVA government.
