Maharashtra political crisis: Come home, Uddhav Thackeray tells Shiv Sena rebels

Late Tuesday night, the BJP petitioned Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to ask the Uddhav Thackeray government to prove its majority. "The 39 Shiv Sena MLAs don't want to be with the Congress and NCP. Hence it appears that the government is in a minority," said Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis. As the BJP delegation met Koshyari, a letter, purportedly from the governor to the legislature to conduct a special session on June 30, became viral on social media, but Raj Bhavan has said it was a fake.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who held a Cabinet meeting, looks to have used another trick up his sleeves to woo the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs. While he made a fresh appeal, asking the rebels to return home and talk to him, Transport Minister Anil Parab, in a gesture to press for the party's Hindutva agenda, proposed to rename Aurangabad. In his appeal to the rebel MLAs, Thackeray said no other party can give them the honour the Sena has given them.

"You have been stuck in Guwahati for the past few days. Every day, new information is coming out about you, and many of you are even in touch with us. You are still in Shiv Sena. The family members of some of you [MLAs] have also contacted me and conveyed their feelings to me. I respect your sentiments as the head of the Sena family.

A surprising coincidence: Women carrying umbrellas distributed to them by MLA Yashwant Jadhav from Byculla, who is in the rebel camp, walk past Shiv Sena Bhavan, in Dadar, on Tuesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

"Please sit with me, and remove the confusion in the minds of Shiv Sainiks and the people. There will be a definite way out of this. Don't fall prey to rumours. The honour given to you by Shiv Sena cannot be found anywhere. As the Shiv Sena chief and family head, I am still worried about you," he added.

‘No MLA in touch with him'

Shinde said in Guwahati that no MLA from his group was in touch with the CM. "If there are any, tell us who they are," he said, asking Uddhav Thackeray to rein in his son Aaditya and MP Sanjay Raut who have been allegedly abusing the MLAs.

"On the one hand, your son and spokesperson called us pigs, dirt, buffalo, buffoon and dead, and on the other hand, you appeal to us for rapprochement for saving the anti-Hindu MVA government. What is this?" Shinde said in his first media appearance in Guwahati.

"We are all happy here." He asked the party cadre not to believe unfounded information spread by the CM's group. Several rebel MLAs have released videos saying they had come to Guwahati willingly and were not in touch with anyone in the opposite camp.

The renaming

Parab said he placed a demand at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar, to commemorate Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's son, Chhatrapati Sambhaji, who laid his life fighting Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. "I have placed the proposal and it will be taken up at tomorrow's [Wednesday] meeting," he told the media persons.

The rebels led by Eknath Shinde have demanded that Sena sever ties with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to stop compromising Hindutva--the Sena's core plank that goes parallel with the BJP's ideology. The mutineers want party president Thackeray to join hands with the BJP, claiming that the NCP and the Congress have been working to weaken the Sena since the coalition in 2019. The renaming of Aurangabad was on the anvil through hardcore MLAs from Marathwada, most of whom have escaped to Guwahati to be with Shinde. The MLAs have said the allies are against the renaming of the Marathwada headquarters.

The 16 rebel MLAs have been given a notice of disqualification that has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The court will hear the case on July 11. Meanwhile, Parab said he has also pressed for the demand for a land tract to Bandra's government colony residents who fear displacement after redevelopment of the huge property.

Will NCP, Cong approve?

Parab's government colony proposal received an immediate reaction from Bandra East Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique. "I have been raising the government colony issue since becoming the MLA. Anil Parabji was missing all this while. These people have woken up after getting a big shock. I will continue my fight for the ownership of residents' homes," he said in a tweet. As far as Aurangabad's renaming is concerned, Congress minister Ashok Chavan said there was no such proposal. The NCP is also not in favour. Whether they agree to the proposal will be known during discussion at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Rebels want trust vote

Speaking from Guwahati, rebel group's spokesperson Deepak Kesarkar said they were still in the Sena and appealed to the CM to prove his majority in the House. "Mr Sharad Pawar has been saying that the MVA will win a trust vote. So, why can't they have a trust vote?" he asked. Kesarkar also expected Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to take note and ask the government to prove majority.

BJP active

Amid reports that the BJP is working on the sharing of berths in the council of ministers, with Shinde getting a Deputy CM's post, Opposition leader in state Assembly Devendra Fadnavis met his party bosses in New Delhi. Sources in the party said the activity for government formation, in case everything falls in place, had taken pace of late. BJP MLAs have been asked to not leave the state.