Maharashtra minister claims 3 MPs, 5 MLAs from Uddhav camp to join Shinde soon

Mumbai: Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant on Thursday claimed that three MPs and five MLAs from the Uddhav Thackeray faction will soon join the Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena group. Its trailer will be out tomorrow (Friday) in Ratnagiri, he said. The minister made these claims at a time when the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress have alleged that the Shinde faction is at the brink of a new rebellion led by Samant.

“Three MPs and five MLAs of Shiv Sena (UBT) have met deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and will soon join Shiv Sena. Along with this, former MLAs, former corporators and office bearers of other parties and Congress have also met the party’s main leader Eknath Shinde and will start working for the Shiv Sena in the next three months,” said Samant.

“I had earlier said that the Thackeray group will soon start falling apart. Four MLAs, three MPs and numerous district heads will soon join the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. As the first step of this, the first leader will join in Ratnagiri tomorrow. In the second phase, current MLAs and MPs will join the NDA,” Samant added.

Senior former Shiv Sena UBT MLA Rajan Salvi is expected to join the Shinde-led Shiv Sena at Ratnagiri on Friday. Salvi had lost from the Rajapur assembly constituency to Shinde Sena candidate Kiran Samant in the recently held Vidhan Sabha elections. Salvi had accused the Sena (UBT) leaders of working against him during the polls.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde warned the Shiv Sena (UBT) that if it does not stop criticising his party and the Mahayuti, then the Uddhav Thackeray-led party will be left with only two MLAs out of the present 20. He said the people of the state gave a befitting reply to the Sena (UBT) in the last year’s Vidhan Sabha elections and it was time for them to introspect.

In the state assembly polls held in November last year, the Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP retained power, won a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The BJP won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena 57 and the NCP got 41 seats. For the opposition MVA, the Shiv Sena (UBT) won 20 seats, the Congress 16 and the NCP (SP) 10 seats.

Earlier on Wednesday, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar had claimed that Samant was going to break away from Shinde along with several MLAs and MPs.