Banners come up in Thane in support of Sena rebel Eknath Shinde, some backing party chief Uddhav Thackeray

@the_news_21

Banners and hoardings have emerged at several places in Thane district of Maharashtra in support of Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who has rebelled against the party, pushing the Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to the brink of collapse.

At some places, there are also banners in support of Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Shinde, 58, who is the sitting MLA from Kopri-Pachpakhadi in Thane city, is a key Sena leader in the Thane-Palghar region, which is considered a stronghold of the Sena.

The Sena minister had gone incommunicado on Tuesday morning and later surfaced in a Surat hotel with a bunch of Sena MLAs, plunging the two-and-a-half-year old MVA into a deep political crisis with his act of rebellion against his party’s leadership. He is currently camping in Assam’s Guwahati with a group of Sena MLAs and independent legislators.

In the wake of Shinde’s revolt, a section of Sena workers have put up hoardings and banners in different places in the district, including Thane city, Kalyan and Dombivali, to show their solidarity with their leader.

Thane’s former mayor Naresh Mhaske, who is currently the city district president of Shiv Sena, has supported Shinde. In a tweet carrying a photograph of Shinde, Mhaske said, “We are with you…We support the fiery Hindutva.”

Talking to reporters, Shiv Sena’s Thane rural district chief Prakash Patil, who is known to be a Shinde loyalist, said whatever he got in life was due to “Saheb”. However, he did not name anyone.