Maharashtra leader Eknath Shinde removed "Shiv Sena" from his Twitter handle bio after the party sacked him as its legislative party leader on Tuesday. The development comes after Shinde reportedly moved to a hotel in BJP-ruled Gujarat with 21 other MLAs, putting a question mark on the stability of the MVA dispensation in Maharashtra.
Sewri MLA Ajay Chaudhary has been named as the new Shiv Sena legislative party leader. In a cryptic tweet, Eknath Shinde said "we will never cheat for power and never abandon teachings of Bal Thackeray".
"We are Balasaheb's staunch Shiv Sainiks. Balasaheb has taught us Hindutva. We have never and will never cheat for power on Balasaheb's thoughts and Anand Dighe Saheb's teachings," Shinde tweeted.
Shinde has been elected consecutively for four terms in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly -- 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. The Sena had elected Eknath Shinde as its legislative party leader in November 2019.
The recent crisis comes a day after the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance suffered a setback in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls. In the polls, the BJP managed to win all the five seats it had contested. The Sena and NCP won two seats each, while only one of two Congress nominees secured a victory. Shinde is reportedly unhappy with the Sena leadership.
READ | Eknath Shinde Sacked As Shiv Sena's Legislative Party Leader: Report
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, targeting the BJP, said there was a conspiracy to topple the Uddhav Thackeray government in the "same pattern as in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan". "Shiv Sena is a party of loyalists. We won't let that happen," he told reporters.
Speaking in Delhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said there was an attempt to pull down the Maharashtra government, which he said was happening for the third time. Calling it an "internal matter" of the Sena, Pawar said he was confident that Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would be able to handle the situation and the MVA government would last its full five-year term.