In yet another blow to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, a total of 66 Thane corporators, led by former mayor Naresh Muske, visited Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's official residence at Nandanvan on Wednesday and joined his group.
They have all announced their intention to work together under the leadership of Shinde.
On June 23, The Free Press Journal reported that among the 64 corporators of the Shiv Sena in Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), 50 corporators would be supporting Eknath Shinde. It seems that this was an underestimate.
At the time, Ashok Vaity, former leader of the house of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) said, " I am with the Guardian Minister of Thane, Eknath Shinde and also a protege of Anand Dighe. I haven't received any calls from the Shiv Sena party senior leaders. We will be deciding our path after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
"If we don't get a ticket from Shiv-Sena we will choose the path that Eknath Shinde will choose. In Thane city, Shinde is the face of the Shiv Sena and he personally connects with every party worker. But in Mumbai the situation and the voting trend are different."
Barely a week after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in, the new government has sanctioned as much as Rs 1,500 crore, not only to the 165 legislators from the Shinde camp and the BJP, Independents and smaller parties, for urban development projects; these funds are also for use in the constituencies of the 12 Shiv Sena legislators loyal to former CM Uddhav Thackeray, who are expected to shift to the Shinde camp.
This is the first major decision to be taken by Shinde, to keep the legislators in good humour, as they had complained about insufficient allocation of funds during the term of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
