Maharashtra crisis: Shiv Sena removes Eknath Shinde as its Legislative party leader

Shiv Sena on Tuesday removed Eknath Shinde as its Legislative party leader following reports of Shinde moving to a Surat hotel in Gujarat, along with 21 other MLAs.

News agency ANI reported that Sewri MLA Ajay Chaudhary will be the new Shiv Sena Legislative Party leader.

Shinde had taken MLAs to have dinner in a dhaba after the voting for the MLC elections got over. Shinde told the MLAs that they would eat in a dhabha in Palghar, which is around 4 hours away from Surat. From Palghar the MLAs were directly driven to Surat.


MLAs have told the Uddhav camp that Shinde had misled them into coming to Gujarat. The CM's camp has claimed that Shinde has only eight to 9 MLAs with him in Gujarat and not 25 to 35 as claimed by Shinde.

"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," Shinde tweeted.


Amid this unrest, the Congress deputed its senior leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath as AICC observer in the state.

"The Congress president has deputed Kamal Nath as All India Congress Committee (AICC) observer in the wake of recent political developments in the state, with immediate effect," said an official communication from the Congress.

The Congress shares power with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena in the MVA government in Maharashtra.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and minister Shinde has gone incommunicado, a party leader said, a day after the MVA suffered a setback in the state Legislative Council polls by losing one out of the six seats it contested.