Maha CM Eknath Shinde to visit offices of rebel MLAs on July 31

The rebel MLAs that CM Eknath Shinde would meet are those who extended their support to him during the rebel against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray.

Rajendra Janjal, the district president of the Shinde group, claimed that the chief minister will visit Vaijapur, which is the constituency of Ramesh Bornare, who joined the rebel camp.

Eknath Shinde will also visit the offices of MLAs Sanjay Shirsat, Pradip Jaiswal and other legislators. The Maharashtra chief minister will also attend some functions in the district.

Recently, Eknath Shinde camp took a jibe at Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray by questioning him how many times he had visited the office of Maharashtra chief minister when he was in power. The faction also asked if he gave time to party workers.

Referring to Shiv Sena’s outreach programmes, Deepak Kesarkar, the spokesperson for the Eknath Shinde faction, said Uddhav Thackeray’s “public appearances” have increased now.

“We have raised three questions and we have not yet received answers. As the chief minister (November 2019-June 2022), how many times did Uddhav Thackeray go to his (chief minister’s) office in Mantralaya and met Sena workers? Now, the frequency of his public appearance has increased,” Kesarkar told reporters.

Before the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had often criticised the “absence” of Uddhav Thackeray in the CM’s office during the pandemic.

A rebellion led by Eknath Shinde and 39 rebel MLAs who supported him led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June.

Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister with Devendra Fadnavis of BJP as his deputy chief minister.

Nearly a month later, the Eknath Shinde camp has also claimed to be the “real Shiv Sena”.

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