Ready to resign: CM Uddhav Thackeray says 'When my own people don't want me...'

New Delhi, Jun 22: Amid the escalating political crisis in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that he is willing to resign as Chief Minister this very moment.

While addressing people during a Facebook Live session, CM Thackeray said that he is ready to resign as Maharashtra Chief Minister, but only if Shiv Sainiks ask me to do so.

''I am ready to give my resignation to the MLAs, they should come here and take my resignation to Raj Bhavan. I am ready to leave the post of Shiv Sena party head also, not on the saying of others but my workers,''Thackeray said.

''If you (MLAs) say, then I am ready to leave the CM post. It's not about numbers but how many are against me. I will leave if even one person or MLA is against me. It's very shameful for me if even a single MLA is against me,'' Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said.

''When all 3 parties came together in 2019, Sharad Pawar told me that I had to take the responsibility of CM post. I didn't even prior experience. But I took the responsibility. Sharad Pawar & Sonia Gandhi helped me a lo,they kept their faith in me,'' Thackeray said.

''If any MLA wants me to not continue as the CM, I am ready to take all my belongings from Versha Bungalow (official residence of the CM) to Matoshri,'' Uddhav Thackeray said, adding, But when my own people (MLAs) don't want me what I can say. If they had something against me, what was the need of saying all this in Surat, they could have come here and said this to my face.''

Further in his address, he also said,''I don't want to get into what is happening with our MLAs and where they are going or where they are being taken.''

''Some people say that it's not Balasaheb's Shiv Sena. They should tell what were the thoughts of Bala Saheb. This is the same Shiv Sena that it was at his time 'Hindutva' is our life,'' Maharashtra CM said.

Amid the escalating political crisis in Maharashtra triggered by Eknath Shinde's rebellion, 34 rebel MLAs have declared him as their leader in a letter to state governor and deputy speaker.

Shinde on the other hand asserted that 40 MLAs from Maharashtra have accompanied him to Assam's Guwahati and they are committed to Balasaheb Thackeray's 'Hindutva' ideology.

Shinde along with a group of Shiv Sena and independent legislators landed in Guwahati early this morning and he initially refused to speak to the media persons waiting outside the airport. He later said 40 MLAs accompanied him but didn't want to make any comment on anybody.

The Shiv Sena legislators have rebelled against the party bringing a crisis to the MVA government in Maharashtra.

The majority mark in the Maharashtra assembly is 144. The BJP has 106 while the Shiv Sena has 55, NCP 53 and Congress 44. The Bahujan Vikas Aghadi has three MLAs while the Samajwadi Party and AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party have two each.

The MNS, CPI(M), PWP, Swabhimani Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, Jansurajya Shakti party, Krantikari Shetkari Party have one each, while the independents are 13 in number.