Guwahati: More MLAs are anticipated to arrive in Guwahati on Friday bringing the total number of Shiv Sena MLAs in the Eknath Shinde camp beyond 50, reports said.
However, the rebel leader Eknath Shinde has retaliated against the Shiv Sena after the party requested the disqualification of 12 rebel MLAs in a letter to the deputy speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday.
Taking to Twitter, Shinde wrote, “You cannot scare us by giving the names of 12 MLAs for disqualification because we are followers of the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. We know the law, so we do not pay heed to threats.”
“We know your ways and the law too! According to Schedule 10 of the Constitution, the whip is used for assembly work, not for meetings,” he further said in a tweet.
Uddhav Thackeray’s branch of the Shiv Sena has petitioned the state assembly’s deputy speaker to revoke the membership of 12 dissident MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, for “not attending” a legislative party meeting on Wednesday.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant told ANI that a notice warning that legal action will be taken if an MLA did not attend the meeting had been given before to the meeting.
In our plea to the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, we asked that the membership of 12 (MLAs) be revoked because they were absent from the meeting yesterday, Sawant said.
“A notification warning that legal action would be taken in accordance with the constitution if you failed to show up for the meeting was issued prior to the meeting. Some didn’t show up, while others provided unjustified excuses ” he added.
In addition to Shinde, the Shiv Sena has asked that Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas, and Lata Chaudhari be disqualified from running for office.
According to the resolution, which was passed on Tuesday by opposition MLAs, Shinde was unanimously chosen to lead the Shiv Sena Legislative Party in 2019 and is still in that position today.
The Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena also claimed that Bharat Gogawale had been named the party’s Chief Whip amidst the ongoing turf battle inside the organisation.
Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse, MLA Sanjay Rathore, and MLC Ravindra Phatak are the three legislators who came in Guwahati on Thursday.
Phatak is thought to be friendly with the chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, who dispatched him to Surat, where the dissident MLAs were being held, as an emissary.