Hours before the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress and Shiv Sena sit across each other in Mumbai to finalise the power-sharing pact of the new government on Friday, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has convened a meeting of his party MLAs to apprise them of the developments.
The legislators could be sent out of Mumbai to Congress-ruled Rajasthan, following the meeting at Matoshree, the Thackeray residence. The party had asked on Wednesday sent out a message to its MLAs to come for the meeting with a change of clothes and identity documents such as Aadhaar.“The meeting has been called to keep the MLAs in the loop and discuss the course of action,” a party functionary said, adding, “The party would take signatures of all its MLAs in the prescribed format, as it is an essential requirement while submitting claim for government formation in the Raj Bhavan.”
Legislators are expected to urge Thackeray to take over the reins of the government. “We and the people of Maharashtra wish that Uddhavji should become the CM. We will urge him to do so in the meeting. It is up to him to take a final call,” said Abdul Sattar, Sena MLA from Sillod.
The Sena leadership feels the MLAs should be kept together at a safe location until the new alliance stakes claim to form the government, a Sena functionary said. The Sena had debated sending the legislators to neighbouring Goa or Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, but eventually settled for Rajasthan. The Congress had earlier put up its 44 MLAs at a luxury resort in Jaipur.“The MLAs could be sent either to Jaipur or Udaipur in Rajasthan, till the process here isn’t completed. However, Uddhav ji will take a final call on Friday morning whether to send them or not,” a senior Shiv Sena leader said.
{{/usCountry}}The Sena leadership feels the MLAs should be kept together at a safe location until the new alliance stakes claim to form the government, a Sena functionary said. The Sena had debated sending the legislators to neighbouring Goa or Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, but eventually settled for Rajasthan. The Congress had earlier put up its 44 MLAs at a luxury resort in Jaipur.“The MLAs could be sent either to Jaipur or Udaipur in Rajasthan, till the process here isn’t completed. However, Uddhav ji will take a final call on Friday morning whether to send them or not,” a senior Shiv Sena leader said.
{{/usCountry}}Senior party MLAs including Eknath Shinde and Thackeray scion Aaditya, who is a legislator from Worli, would stay back in Mumbai.
The Sena had earlier this month moved its legislators to a hotel in Bandra and later to a beachfront resort at Madh in Malad for a few days, when it was negotiating with the Bharatiya Janata Party, its alliance partner in the state elections. But the Sena walked out of the partnership after the BJP refused to share the chief minister’s post.