Bharat Gogawale and not Sunil Prabhu is Shiv Sena's Chief Whip: Eknath Shinde

Mumbai, Jun 22: Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde, who has rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray's leadership, said that Bharat Gogawale is the Chief Whip of the party. Hence, the order issued by Sunil Prabhu to attend the evening meeting is "illegal".

On Twitter, he wrote, "Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as the Chief Whip of Shiv Sena Legislative Party. So, the order issued by Sunil Prabhu, regarding the Legislative Party meeting this evening is illegal,"

His statement comes after Sunil Prabhu issued a letter to all party MLAs, asking them to be present in an important meeting that will be held today evening. The letter states that if someone remains absent, it will be considered that the said MLA has decided to quit the party voluntarily.

"The Shiv Sena has called for an urgent meeting today evening at 'Varsha' bungalow as there have been attempts to make the MVA government unstable. The details regarding the meeting have been shared with all the members (MLAs) on their registered e-mail address, Whatsapp and by way of SMS.

You cannot remain absent to the meeting without providing a valid and sufficient reason. If you do not attend the meeting, it would be presumed that you have a clear intention of leaving the party. Hence, there will be action taken against you based on the provisions for preventing anti-defection," the letter said.

'Varsha' is the official residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

A day earlier, the Sena had removed Shinde as its group leader in the Legislative Assembly. The Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs in the Assembly. Shinde had said he has 46 MLAs supporting him. "I have more numbers (of Shiv Sena MLAs) than needed (to form a separate group in the Assembly without inviting the anti-defection law provisions)," he told a Marathi TV channel. The Shiv Sena-led MVA is tottering on the brink following the rebellion by Shinde who left Mumbai on Monday night with a sizeable number of MLAs and travelled to Surat in Gujarat. In the early hours of Wednesday, Shinde and rebel MLAs accompanying him were flown to Guwahati. PTI