CM wanted to resign soon after revolt broke out: Sena insiders
MUMBAI: As chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was facing a revolt within his party ranks, he was planning to resign from the post when he addressed the state on June 22 but a section of Shiv Sena functionaries and senior Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi leaders, particularly NCP chief Sharad Pawar, convinced him against it, according to leaders aware of the matter who asked not to be named.
Senior Sena functionaries also claimed that there was a difference of opinion in the party over Thackeray’s proposed resignation, about whether the party should pull out of the MVA, and whether it should fight it out and face a floor test. The speculations over the resignation arose on two occasions -- after the CM’S address to the state on June 22, and when a virtual meeting of government secretaries was planned the following day.
The drama began after senior minister Eknath Shinde, and a group of around 10-12 MLAS, went incommunicado late on June 20. By the next day, it was clear that Shinde had reached Surat in Gujarat, and that his numbers were swelling. Thackeray held a series of meeting at his official residence, Varsha, on June 21, and sent two senior functionaries to negotiate a truce between the rebel group and party leadership. However, it did not bear fruit. Amid the political crisis, the state cabinet meeting was held on June 22.
Following that, Thackeray made an emotional speech to the state. “I am willing to quit the CM post as well as the Shiv Sena chief’s post. But Shiv Sainiks need to tell me. Come face-to-face and tell me,” he said in a live address on Facebook.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Thackeray at Varsha after his address. Thackeray and his family then left the Varsha bungalow and moved back to Matoshree, his personal residence in Bandra East and the seat of the Shiv Sena power linked intrinsically to his father Bal Thackeray.
On June 23, speculation again grew as the CM office organised a meeting of all the secretaries. There was talk in party circles that Thackeray would thank them for the work and support in the last two-and-a-half years of the MVA government, and then hand in his resignation. But senior leaders and MVA partners intervened again, the people cited in the first instance said, and the meeting was cancelled.