The rebel MLAs in the Eknath Shinde camp held a press conference on 30th June 2022. This was the first media interaction by the rebel camp of Shiv Sena after Maharashtra’s chief minister Uddhav Thackeray resigned on June 29. In the press conference, Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar said that they are the real Shiv Sena as they have the majority of MLAs. He also said that they are not revolting against Uddhav Thackeray, and they were only against the alliance with Congress and NCP.
Addressing the media, the faction’s spokesperson Deepak Kesarkar said, “Uddhav Thackeray was and is the leader of Shiv Sena. He had said that ‘if any of the MLAs want to become chief minister, then he should come ahead and meet me and say so, then I will resign.’ It must be noted that none of the MLAs, whom the Shiv Sena spokesperson called traitors, has asked Uddhav Thackeray to resign. All we were asking him was to break the alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party and join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party. But, when Sharad Pawar intervened in this situation, the deputy speaker Narhari Zirval sent us the disqualification notice. This step caused us to take the issue to the court and the legal fight started. When the court ruled to hold a session of the state legislative assembly for a trust vote as ordered by the honorable Governor, Uddhav Thackeray resigned because he knew that the Maha Vikas Aghadi does not have the numbers. We did not ask him to resign in this way.”
Deepak Kesarkar also said that MLAs in the Eknath Shinde camp are hurt by the remarks made by Sanjay Raut. He said, “We are hurt because no action is taken by the party against Sanjay Raut who used abusive language for us, called the elected MLAs traitors, threatened us and our families. We did not leave the party. We are still in Shiv Sena. I urge Sanjay Raut not to use such words for us. We have not betrayed anyone. We asked people to vote us as an alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena alliance and now the same government will be formed for which the people have voted.”
Deepak Kesarkar said, “We still love and respect Uddhav Thackeray. Legislature party Shiv Sena within the house is one thing and Shiv Sena as a national-level political party is a separate thing. No one is claiming to have owned the party here. Eknath Shinde is Shiv Sena’s leader in the assembly house. We gave some time to Uddhav Thackeray to decide and go with the BJP. He did not. Then Eknath Shinde promised to BJP on our behalf in the capacities of our leader in the house. When you hold talks with such a big party, you don’t betray. Eknath Shinde is Anand Dighe’s disciple. He will not turn back now. He will hold talks with Devendra Fadnavis today for making a new government in Maharashtra.”
Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde has left Goa and reached Mumbai where he held talks with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis. Before leaving for Mumbai, Eknath Shinde said, “We are not happy with what happened. But what can we do? We had repeatedly told Uddhav Thackeray about this. All the 50 MLAs have elected me as their leader and I will make the decisions on their behalf. All of us want to continue with the Hindutva ideology of respected Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and Dharmveer Anand Dighe. I will meet the Governor first. Then I will meet Devendra Fadnavis and other leaders of the BJP. We will communicate the further decisions after the meeting. I will come back to Goa.”
Eknath Shinde met Devendra Fadnavis at his residence in Mumbai, and both are going to meet the governor to stake claim to form the government. It is being said that Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde may take oath today at 7 pm as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. Rest ministers will take oath later after both parties conduct detailed discussions and inevitable negotiations on the issue.
