Former MLA Shishir Shinde quits Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena

Shishir Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray. Pic/Twitter@ShishirShinde1

Former MLA Shishir Shinde on Saturday resigned from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.

According to news agency PTI, he was given no responsibility despite being appointed as Shiv Sena (UBT) deputy leader a year ago, he said in a letter to party president Thackeray.

Meeting Uddhav Thackeray had become "impossible" in the last six months, he added.

A firebrand Shiv Sena worker, Shinde rose to fame when he, along with some other party activists, dug up the pitch of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai in 1991 to prevent an India-Pakistan match from taking place.

He later quit the Shiv Sena to join the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by Raj Thackeray, and was elected as MLA from suburban Bhandup in 2009.

But in 2018, he returned to the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

Meanwhile, The Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions are gearing up to celebrate on June 19 the foundation day of the Shiv Sena by organising events at two separate venues in Mumbai, both of which are likely to be marked by verbal duels to prove which is real inheritor of the mantle of founder late Bal Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena split in June last year after the rebellion of Shinde against then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the party name and 'bow and arrow' symbol was allotted later to the former. The Thackeray faction was christened Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

It will be the first time the foundation day of the Shiv Sena will be celebrated since the split last year.

While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena (UBT) will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.

Both sides stake claim to be the real Sena.

Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Thackeray will also address his supporters in Worli, which is the Assembly seat of his son and former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena was founded in 1966 by cartoonist turned politician Bal Thackeray who championed the cause of the sons of the soil.

Eknath Shinde's rebellion last year brought down the Uddhav Thackeray government, after which the former became chief minister on June 30 with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Uddhav faction is part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi also including the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.

(With inputs from PTI)