The opposition BJP on Tuesday night urged Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to direct the crisis-hit Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to prove its majority in the Assembly, while Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made a fresh effort to reach out to rebel Shiv Sena MLAs camping in Guwahati in a bid to win them over. As the political crisis, triggered by rebellion by Shiv Sena leader and cabinet minister Eknath Shinde, entered the eight day, the BJP moved to pile on the pressure on the beleaguered MVA government.
After arriving from New Delhi, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai and submitted a letter to him, seeking direction to the MVA government to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly in view of the rebellion in the Shiv Sena, the lead party in the ruling alliance .Fadnavis, a former CM, claimed the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress ruling coalition seemed to be in a minority as 39 Sena MLAs, who belong to the rebel faction led by cabinet minister Eknath Shinde, have said they do not support the government.
”Therefore, we handed over a letter to the Governor, requesting him to ask the government to prove its majority through a floor test in the House,” the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly told reporters. Citing various Supreme Court judgements, Fadnavis said in the letter that as majority in the House is ”supreme” in parliamentary democracy and essential for a government’s existence, he was requesting the Governor to ask the chief minister to prove majority at the earliest.
Before meeting the Governor around 10 pm, Fadnavis called on top BJP leaders, including party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in New Delhi earlier in the day. According to sources, before the former CM landed at the Raj Bhavan, eight Independent MLAs, who were earlier associated with the Shiv Sena, sent emails from Guwahati — where the rebel group headed by Shinde is camping — seeking floor test at the earliest, claiming the Thackeray government has lost its majority.
Reaching out to dissident Sena MLAs once again, CM Thackeray urged them to return to Mumbai and hold talks with him, saying it’s not ”too late”, but rebel leader Shinde remained unmoved and asserted the legislators backing him are firm on taking forward Hindutva.
The fresh conciliatory move came a day after the CM, who is also the Sena president, took away the portfolios of all nine rebel ministers, including Shinde, and against the backdrop of the Supreme Court granting relief to breakaway MLAs.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, however ratcheted up the rhetoric against the rebels, warning those who have betrayed the party leadership should not be able to move around freely. Thackeray’s offer to mend fences comes against the backdrop of controversial statements made by some Shiv Sena leaders, especially Raut whose ”40 bodies without soul” statement had caused a flutter.
”It is not too late. I appeal to you to return and sit with me and remove the confusion (created by your actions) among Shiv Sainiks and the public,” a statement by Thackeray’s aide quoted him as saying. ”If you return and face me, some way could be found. As the party president and family head, I still care for you,” he said.
Thackeray said family members of some rebel MLAs camping in Guwahati are in touch with him.”You have been stuck in Guwahati for the last few days. New information is coming out about you every day, and many of you are also in touch. In your heart, you are still with the Shiv Sena,” he said.
Thackeray had last week made an emotional appeal, saying he was ready to step down if Shinde and MLAs who are supporting him declared that they don’t want him to continue as CM.Shinde, however, seemed unenthused as he reminded the Sena leadership that the latest patch-up offer is at variance with the harsh criticism the rebels are facing from Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya Thackeray, a cabinet minister, and party spokesperson Raut.
On the one hand, your son and spokesperson call the Shiv Sainiks of revered Balasaheb Thackeray pigs, dirt from nullah, dogs, corpses, ’jahil’ and on the other hand, a call is given to the (rebel) MLAs to patch up to save the anti-Hindu MVA government. What does that mean? Shinde tweeted in Marathi.
Shinde said he will soon return to Mumbai, and rubbished the Sena’s claim that as many as 20 MLAs of his group are in touch with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party. Talking to reporters outside the luxury hotel in Guwahati where he and his group of MLAs are lodged since last week, Shinde claimed he has the support of 50 MLAs.
All these MLAs have come here on their own and to take forward Hindutva,” Shinde said. Senior Sena leaders have been claiming that around 20 MLAs of the party, now with Shinde in Guwahati, are in touch with them and want to return to Maharashtra. Shinde said, ”Some people from that side are claiming that some MLAs here are in touch with them. If it is the case, then they should reveal their names. Our stand is clear…to take forward the Shiv Sena, dreamt of by late Balasaheb Thackeray. We will continue to toe the line of his Hindutva,” he said.
Adopting an aggressive posture against the rebel faction led by Shinde, Raut said those who have betrayed the party leadership should not be able to move around.
”Traitors should not be able to roam on the streets,” he said, addressing a rally at Alibag in Raigad district. Raut, at the rally, slammed the rebel MLAs’ claim that their fight was for protecting the party’s Hindutva moorings, pointing out that more than half of them were earlier with the NCP, the second largest constituent of the MVA.
”The rebel MLAs supporting Eknath Shinde are saying their cause is to protect the Hindutva envisaged by party founder Balasaheb Thackeray. Twenty-two of them have come from the Nationalist Congress Party. What Hindutva they are talking about? Those who opposed Balasaheb Thackeray ended up ruining their own career,” Raut said.
Around 40 rebel Sena MLAs and at least 10 independent legislators have lodged themselves at a five-star hotel in Guwahati in their bid to bring down the two-and-a-half-year-old MVA government.
Banners labelling dissident Shiv Sena MLAs as traitors were hung in various places in Guwahati by the youth and students wings of the Nationalist Congress Party, which is a partner in the coalition government of Maharashtra. The banners, in Hindi, one of which was erected in Lankeswar area — between Radisson Blu hotel and the Guwahati airport — carried graphics of a scene from blockbuster ’Baahubali’, in which Katappa betrayed and killed Amarendra Baahubali by stabbing him with a sword from behind.
All three banners were found removed by noon. A senior police officer, when contacted, said he had no knowledge of it. .
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