Maharashtra Crisis: Thackeray Offers to Quit, “No Talk with BJP on Next Government:” Shinde

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 22: Tottering on the verge of collapse, the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday offered to resign as the chief minister of Maharashtra “if a single Sena MLA tells me so on my face,” as the rebel leader Eknath Shinde claimed the support of 40 Sena members besides some half-a-dozen independents.

Though the number, if true, is sufficient to form a government with the backing or led by the BJP in the state, Shinde despite accepting the hospitality of the BJP, claimed that he was not in touch with the BJP and had not received any communication from the party over the formation of the next government if the Thackeray-led MVA government collapsed.

Shinde and other rebel Sena MLAs were on Wednesday shifted from Surat in Gujarat to Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, also ruled by the BJP, in three chartered flights and were lodged in a five star hotel.

While at least two MLAs, Kailas Patil and Nitin Deshmukh, who were believed to had been taken away by the Shinde group to Surat, returned to Thackeray camp claiming that they were “forcibly taken away” by the rebel group, in a shot in the arm to the rebel group, at least four more Sena MLAs, who were not in the first lot of rebels who came to Surat with Shinde on Monday night, arrived in the city on Wednesday and were later flows away to Guwahati to join with the rebel group.

The Shinde group also rejected the official party resolution of he being dropped as the leader of the Sena group in the state Assembly and asserted that Shinde was the “leader” of the Sena and continued to be the chief whip of the legislature party. They also wrote a letter to the governor and the deputy speaker extending support to Shinde. The letter was signed by 46 MLAs including six independent.

Soon after arriving in Guwahati, Shinde asserted that 40 MLAs from Maharashtra have accompanied him to Assam’s Guwahati and they are committed to Balasaheb Thackeray’s ‘Hindutva’ ideology. Shinde along with a group of Shiv Sena and independent legislators arrived in the city early Wednesday morning. Asserting that he led the “true” Shiv Sena, Shinde said, “We are committed to Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology of ‘Hindutva’ and we want to take it forward,” Shinde said. Asked why they have come to Guwahati, he said, “It is a nice place.”

Tight security is in place with a huge posse of police personnel posted in and around the hotel where the legislators from the western state are lodged.

Meanwhile, Kailas Patil, the MLA from Osmanabad, has alleged that Shinde’s men hoodwinked him and tried to take him to Gujarat in a car. But Patil caught their bluff midway to the neighbouring state and escaped. Recounting his agony, Shiv Sena MLA Nitin Deshmukh, who was presumed to have joined the Eknath Shinde camp, told reporters that he was “kidnapped” and taken to Gujarat’s Surat from where he escaped. “Over a hundred cops came and took me to a hospital. They pretended that I had a heart attack and forecefully tried to conduct some medical procedures on my body,” he said.

IN an address to the state, instead of addressing his MLAs, Thackeray also claimed that many of the Sena MLAs were taken away to Surat “forcibly.” “I am getting calls from MLAs who have gone with Eknath Shinde; they are claiming that they were forcibly taken away,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray, who to add to the woes of the Sena and the MVA government tested Covid positive on Wednesday morning at a time when he was required to be on the forefront, also asserted that he would “not fight for the chair” and his party Shiv Sena “will never give up Hindutva.” “I will resign if even one MLA objects to me as Chief Minister. I am keeping my resignation letter ready. You tell me you want me to resign,” Uddhav Thackeray said. Thackeray spoke shortly after 30 Shiv Sena MLAs wrote to the Governor backing rebel Eknath Shinde as their leader.

Thackeray also said he was immediately shifting from “Varsha,” the official residence of the Maharashtra chief minister,” to “Matoshree,” his parental house and the headquarter of Shiv Sena.

The Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut said in a tweet in Marathi that the ongoing political crisis hints at the dissolution of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. The Shiv Sena also shifted its 12 MLAs to the St Regis hotel in Lower Parel, in Mumbai, to protect them against “poaching.”

Hours after Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Shinde on the phone and urged him to end his revolt, Shinde and his group of MLAs flew to Assam. Thackeray address indicated that he had conceded the fight and was ready to sound the last post of the three-party MVA government in the state.

“I have kept letter of my resignation as chief minister ready; willing to resign as Chief Minister this very moment. Will quit as chief minister and leave official residence if even one of the disgruntled MLAs says he doesn’t want me as Chief Minister.”

Regretting that the rebellion against his leadership had come from his own party whom he trusted the most, Thackeray said, “If my own people don’t want me as Chief Minister, he should walk up to me and say so… I’m ready to resign… I am Balasaheb’s son, I am not after a post,” Thackeray said in a Facebook address this evening. He also added, “Sharad Pawar and Kamal Nath phoned me saying they want me to continue as Chief Minister.”