40 bodies will come back, says Raut; Maharashtra battle reaches SC

As Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLA and minister Eknath Shinde moves to the Supreme Court against the disqualification notice issued by the deputy speaker to him and 15 other rebel legislators, party leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday dared the rebels to quit as MLAs and face fresh elections. 

A vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala is likely to hear on Monday the plea by Shinde, who along with a sizeable number of Sena MLAs, is currently camping in Guwahati in Assam since June 22.

Raut said the doors of the party were open for those who wish to return. He expressed confidence that the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress will survive the current crisis.

Majority of Shiv Sena MLAs have sided with Shinde and are currently camping in Guwahati, plunging the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the Sena, into a crisis.

"My open challenge to the rebels is to resign and seek a fresh mandate from their electorate. In the past, Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane and their supporters had resigned as Sena MLAs to join other parties. Even (Union minister) Jyotiraditya Scindia supporters in Madhya Pradesh had resigned as Congress MLAs (in March 2020)," Raut told reporters.

Expressing confidence that the MVA will survive the crisis, Raut said, "The rebels claim to have the support of majority of MLAs. So why are they still in Guwahati? Come to Mumbai. I will myself go the airport to welcome them." "I won't be surprised if the rebels attack each other in the Guwahati hotel as they have been forcibly kept there," he claimed.

Meanwhile, Union minister Raosaheb Danve on Sunday said the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, racked by rebellion in main constituent Shiv Sena, will last "two to three days".

Speaking at the inaugural function of an agriculture department building in the presence of state NCP minister Rajesh Tope, the BJP leader said the MVA should complete remaining development works at the earliest as "we (BJP) will be in opposition only for two to three days".

"Time is running out. This government will last for two to three days. The BJP has nothing to do with this rebellion. Shiv Sena rebels have resentment towards Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as development funds were diverted by NCP and Congress," the Union Minister of State for Railway, Coal and Mines said.

Queried on the possibility of the Eknath Shinde-led group merging with the BJP, Danve, himself a former state unit chief, said there was no such proposal and if one comes then the senior leadership would take a call.

Back in Maharashtra, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked state Director General of Police (DGP) Rajnish Seth to provide adequate police protection to the families and homes of rebel MLAs, a police official said on Sunday.

As per the letter written by Koshyari, he had received a representation on June 25 from 38 MLAs of Shiv Sena, two members of the Prahar Janshakti Party and seven Independents.

“I have received a representation from the MLAs stating that the police security of their families has been illegally and unlawfully withdrawn," it said.

Koshyari's letter stated that the MLAs had raised serious concerns about the safety of their homes and families in the context of the provocative and threatening statements being made by certain political leaders.  ­Their families living in Maharashtra too will be secured as the security blanket entails house protection teams, they had said.

Shiv Sena cadres have been staging protests in various parts of the state since Saturday in view of the rebellion by Shinde and other MLAs.

Assam BJP ministers meet rebel MLAs

Assam ministers Ashok Singhal and Pijush Hazarika on Sunday visited the luxury hotel in Guwahati, where dissident Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde is camping with other MLAs from Maharashtra, and held a series of discussions with them, sources said. This is the third time in two days that Singhal has met the dissidents.