Bal Thackeray's arrest in 2000 is new ammunition for Eknath Shinde camp

In the past, Shiv Sena has demanded apology from the NCP for Bal Thackeray's arrest.

The rebel Shiv Sena faction targeted the Uddhav Thackeray camp for working alongside Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra when Bal Thackeray was arrested in 2000.

Bal Thackeray was arrested in connection with a case against the Sena moutpiece Saamna in connection with the 1992-93 riots.

Bhujbal joined the Shiv Sena in the 1960s and soon established himself as a Sena stalwart after getting elected as the city's mayor. He was elected to the Maharashtra assembly from the Mazgaon constituency for the first time in 1985.

But Bhujbal quit the Sena when Thackeray made Manohar Joshi opposition leader in the state assembly and joined Congress after engineering a defection. He became a minister in the Congress government but lost the next assembly election, in 1995. He found a mentor in the Congress leader Sharad Pawar and was made opposition leader in the Legislative Council.

Over the next two-three years, he launched an attack on the Sena-BJP government by exposing several scams. When Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party after quitting the Congress, he made Bhujbal party's first state president.

Apologise for arrest of Bal Thackeray in 2000: Shiv Sena to NCP

The Congress-NCP formed the government after the 1999 assembly elections and Bhujbal became deputy chief minister. In 2000, he did the unthinkable by arresting Bal Thackeray in connection with a case against the Sena mouthpiece Saamna in connection with the 1992-93 riots.

In a video released by Eknath Shinde, rebel Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Sabne, asked "Do you not feel any pain while sitting in the Cabinet with Chhagan Bhujbal who had arrested Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray?"

The high-voltage drama around the political crisis in Maharashtra refuses to die down as both sides using new tactics to gain an advantage in the fight for control over Shiv Sena. The war of words has now taken a legal turn, with the Supreme Court all set to take up petitions moved by rebel Shiv Sena MLAs challenging the disqualification notices sent by Maharashtra deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal. Shinde faction has claimed that the notices represented misuse of the anti-defection law by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has stripped Shinde and Uday Samant of their portfolios and handed them to other ministers.