After adopting a wait-and-watch attitude on the political crisis within the party due to a bitter political war between rebel leader Eknath Shinde and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, a majority of local Shiv Sainiks and corporators in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) have decided to stand in support of the Chief Minister.
This became evident when representatives from both scheduled a meeting of party office bearers and corporators to test their respective strengths in the twin city on Saturday evening.
While senior Sena leader Vinod Ghosalkar chaired a meeting on behalf of the party in the Penkarpada area of Kashimira, Sena rebel Pratap Sarnaik addressed the gathering and tried to clear his stand through video conference at his office in Mira Road.
Notably, Shiv Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik and his independent counterpart Geeta Jain are currently camping at Hotel Radisson Blu in Guwahati, Assam with the Eknath Shinde rebel faction. Barring a couple of corporators, a few office-bearers and party workers who registered their presence in the rebel camp, the meeting chaired by Ghosalkar and city chief Prabhakar Mhatre witnessed a significant presence, clearly indicating that Sainiks have responded positively to Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to launch a full-fledged attack by posing a counter challenge on purported attempts by Shinde and his supporters to topple the party and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
“Barring a few selfish people, the entire Shiv Sena unit of the twin-city strongly stands by Uddhavji,” claimed Mhatre. However, there are several Shiv Sainiks who have expressed their inability to pick a side between the party and Shinde in the long run, especially at a juncture when the MBMC polls are just a couple of months away.
The twin city has two assembly segments. Sarnaik and Jain represent the Owala-Majiwada (146) and Mira-Bhayandar (145) constituencies respectively. A day before leaving for Guwahati, Jain had pledged her support to BJP after meeting former CM- Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence in Mumbai.
