The crisis in the ruling Shiv Sena on Tuesday after senior leader Eknath Shinde went "incommunicado" with a sizable number of MLAs led to Mumbai police deploying a large number of personnel at the party's headquarters in Dadar area.
Meanwhile, as pe the report by BBC Marathi, minister and Sena leader Aaditya Tahckeray has asked Sena workers to protest outside the houses of rebel MLAs.
Hundreds of party workers started assembling at Shiv Sena Bhavan as news of Shinde's rebellion broke in the morning, with the numbers swelling by the hour, most of them irate over the challenge thrown at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
"This protest will continue against whoever betrays the Shiv Sena. Our leader Uddhav Thackeray will overcome all these problems and emerge victorious," one woman at the site said.
"When (party founder) Balasaheb (Thackeray) was alive, he used to say look after Uddhav the way you all have supported me. This is what we are doing. We are all here to support Uddhav Thackeray," another party worker said.
As emotions among the workers of the cadre-based party ran high, a heavy posse of police, including women personnel, was at hand to ensure the situation did not go out of hand, officials said.
Maha CM's representatives meet rebel Eknath Shinde in Surat hotel, leave for Mumbai
Meanwhile, two leaders of Shiv Sena dispatched by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met and held a detailed discussion with rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and other MLAs at a hotel in Surat on Tuesday to defuse the internecine crisis having the potential to threaten the survival of the MVA government in the neighbouring state.
The discussions were held between Thackeray's confidants Milind Narvekar and Ravindra Phatak and Shinde and other MLAs at the hotel where they have been camping since the late Monday night.
Narvekar and Phatak left for Mumbai by road without responding to queries of the media after the meeting which lasted for nearly two hours.
Shinde and his loyalist MLAs reached the hotel in Surat late Monday night, hours after the results of the MLC polls in Maharashtra were declared.
In the elections held for the 10 seats up for grabs, the BJP won all the five seats it had contested despite having votes to win four candidates apparently on the back of cross-voting by some MLAs of the MVA constituents.
The NCP and Shiv Sena won two seats each contested by them. Another MVA ally, Congress, suffered a jolt as the party lost one of its two candidates to BJP's fifth nominee in the MLC polls.
