Who is Ajay Choudhari? Shiv Sena's new group leader in Maharashtra assembly after sacking of Eknath Shinde

In a dramatic turn of events, Shiv Sena has removed Eknath Shinde as the party's group leader in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, hours after he went incommunicado and decamped late last night for Surat with at least 21 MLAs of his party, triggering a crisis in the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Shinde has been removed as the Shiv Sena group leader in the Assembly and replaced with Ajay Choudhuri, the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said.

Choudhari represents the Sewri segment in Mumbai and has won the Assembly polls in 2014 and 2019. He was made Shiv Sena's Nashik district chief 2015.

Choudhari, meanwhile, told news agency PTI that 25 MLAs have supported his appointment as the group leader of Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, with a tweet earlier today, Eknath Shinde has dropped sufficient hint that he has decided to part ways with Shiv Sena to chart start a new innings.

In a tweet in Marathi, Shinde said, "We are Balasaheb's staunch Shiv Sainiks ... Balasaheb has taught us Hindutva .. We have never and will never cheat for power regarding Balasaheb's thoughts and Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Saheb's teachings."

Hinting at a switch, Shinde has also dropped "Shiv Sena" from his Twitter bio.

However, sources said that some of these 'rebel' MLAs have dialled party chief and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray from the Le Méridien hotel in Surat and have alleged that have been "forcibly" taken to the neighbouring state.