Uddhav offers to quit, Shinde says Sena must leave MVA immediately

Letter Signed By 34 Rebels Sent To Guv

- Priyanka Kakodkar

Mumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray appeared to be on the brink as the Shiv Sena's rebel faction led by urban development minister Eknath Shinde seemed set to as the day drew to a close command the support of the bulk of the party's MLAs. The faction refused to relent even as Thackeray made an emotional appeal to the rebels in a Facebook live address, offering to "resign in a minute" even if one of them asked him to do so and saying he would be happy if a Shiv Sainik became CM. However, Shinde reiterated the need for the Sena to break away from MVA.

While Shinde claimed the support of over 40 MLAs, the faction led by him submitted a letter signed by 34 MLAs to Governor B S Koshyari, reinstating him as leader of Shiv Sena in the legislature, a post from which he was sacked on Tuesday. While two of the 34 MLAs-Nitin Deshmukh and Kailash Patil-returned to Thackeray's fold, two other Sena MLAs, Yogesh Kadam and Gopal Dalvi, and two independents, Chandrakant Patil and Manjula Gavit, reached Surat on Wednesday morning and left for Guwahati on a chartered flight.

CM's talk makes little impact on rebels

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena rebels' count at the time of going to press was only two or three short of the figure of 37 they need to avoid attracting provisions of the anti-defection law after water supply minister Gulabarao Patil also joined them in Guwahati.

Earlier in the evening, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who tested Covid positive, offered to make way for another Sena leader as CM. However, it appeared to have made little impact on the rebels.

Thackeray then moved out of his official residence Varsha with his family and returned to Matoshree, his residence. But Sena MP Sanjay Raut said Thackeray would not resign. "If given a chance, the government will prove its majority in the assembly," Raut said.