As crisis worsens for Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Congress leader says Eknath Shinde eyeing Deputy CM chair

Amid an escalating turmoil in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, reports have surfaced suggesting that tensions within the Shiv Sena camp had been brewing for over a week leading up to the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections on Monday. Adding insult to injury, a Congress minister from the state told news agency PTI that ‘missing’ Urban Development minister Eknath Shinde has been eyeing the Deputy Chief Minister’s post for long.

While the Congress and Shiv Sena has ruled out any immediate danger to the alliance, reports suggest that more ‘rebel’ legislators are set to join Shinde who is learnt to be camping with his supporters in Gujarat. The MVA suffered a huge setback as they lost the tenth seat to opposition BJP in the MLC polls amid cross-voting and support from Independents. The blow comes barely a week after the BJP stunned Sena’s Sanjay Pawar in the Rajya Sabha elections. After the MLC elections, Shinde along with 21 MLAs went incommunicado and is believed to be camping at a Surat resort.

“An upheaval was going on in the Shiv Sena for nearly a week,” the Congress minister told PTI, adding that Shinde wanted to be the Deputy CM.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, while speaking to reporters today, observed that the recent development is “a matter of concern” for the ruling MVA alliance, while Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil called the speculations over a regime change in the state “a little premature”.

“We’re minutely observing the turn of events. It’s a little premature to say that it’ll lead to any changes. It’s a handle-with-care situation. We have to see it very keenly. We are observing all situations,” Patil told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that any effort to topple the government will not be successful. “Some MLAs of Shiv Sena and Eknath Shinde are currently not reachable. Efforts are being made to topple the MVA government but BJP has to remember that Maharashtra is very different from Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh,” Raut said.