Express News Service
MUMBAI: An embattled Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray played emotional card on Tuesday and appealed to the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs camped in Guwahati to ‘come back home’, saying he was ready to talk to them. Uddhav, at the same time, alleged said that some of the MLAs were forcefully kept in Guwahati and were in touch with him.
“I am your party president and family head. So, I am ready to listen to your grievances. Please come back and meet me in person. We will surely come out with a solution if you come here,” the Shiv Sena supremo said in his appeal. He added that the rebel MLAs’ families were worried about them and wanted them to come back.
“Please do not get into the trap of wrong people. No one will give you the honour that the Shiv Sena has given,” he further said. Earlier, Uddhav’s wife Rashmi Thackeray had spoken to the spouses and family members of the MLAs. She told them that the Sena was one family and if the rebels had any issues, “then as a family they should sit together and resolve these”. She asked them to persuade their husbands to come back.
Sena sources also clarified that the CM was not going to resign and was prepared to fight a legal battle if a no-confidence motion was bought against his government. The sources further claimed that the rebel camp was divided. The Eknath Shinde camp wanted merger with the BJP while retaining the splinter group’s identity as Shiv Sena MLAs while the other group favoured meeting Uddhav and finding out a solution, said a person camped in Guwahati.
He added that most of the rebels no longer wanted to stay far away in Guwahati and were putting pressure on Shinde to find an amicable solution. Shinde, however, denied anyone from the splinter group was in touch with Uddhav and said there was no possibility of a patch-up.
