Maharashtra crisis: Uddhav Thackeray takes away portfolios of 9 rebel ministers

Mumbai, Jun 27: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Monday handed over portfolios of 9 ministers, who are camping in Guwahati, to other ministers. The portfolios of the rebel ministers were being handed over to other ministers for ease of administration, according to the CMO.

The Sena now has four cabinet ministers, including CM Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray, Anil Parab, and Subhash Desai. Barring Aaditya Thackeray, the rest three are MLCs.

In the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by the Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party had 10 Cabinet-rank ministers before the rebellion and four Ministers of State (MoS), including two from the Sena quota. All the four MoS have joined the rebel camp in Guwahati.

Deepening the crisis for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, another Maharashtra minister, Uday Samant, on Sunday reached Guwahati and joined the dissident camp of MLAs led by his cabinet colleague Eknath Shinde.

So far, Maharashtra cabinet ministers Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, and ministers of state Shamburaje Desai and Abdul Sattar have joined the rebel camp.

Another minister, Bachu Kadu of Prahar Janshakti Party, and an Independent minister from Sena quota, Rajendra Yedravkar, have also been camping with Shinde.

Dissident legislators of Shiv Sena, which heads the ruling coalition, have been camping in Guwahati, around 2,700 km away from Mumbai, since June 22.

A group of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Shinde, were taken to Surat from Mumbai on June 21 and then flown to Guwahati the next day. Since then, several chartered flights carrying dissident MLAs have landed at LGBI Airport.

The Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat on Saturday issued summonses to 16 of the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde, seeking written replies by the evening of June 27 to the complaints seeking their disqualification.

The MLAs, after receiving the notices, have been huddling inside the hotel since Sunday morning, discussing various options to respond to the notices.