Shiv Sena Crisis: Big BLOW to Uddhav Thackeray, THIS leader joins Eknath Shinde camp

Aaditya Thackeray, son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, has suffered a setback. Yuva Sena leader Vikas Gogawale has joined Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction. Vikas Gogawale's father Bharat Gogawale is the Chief Whip from the Shinde faction. Vikas Gogawale was seen at the Chief Minister's residence on Tuesday night. He had come to meet CM Shinde before Guru Purnima. Vikas Gogawale claimed that at least 50 office-bearers of Yuva Sena would join the Shinde faction by this week. 

Let us tell you that Aaditya Thackeray is the president of Yuva Sena. Earlier, Shiv Sena spokesperson and former Mumbai councilor Sheetal Mhatre and some Shiv Sena workers joined the Shinde faction on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Maharashtra CM Shinde claimed that many leaders of Shiv Sena faction of Uddhav Thackeray are in touch with him. 

Shinde was reacting to speculations that 12 out of 18 Lok Sabha MPs of Shiv Sena are ready to join hands with his camp. Shinde credited the rebel MLAs for carrying forward the ideology of late Balasaheb Thackeray and forging an alliance with the BJP once again to support the new government. 40 out of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs are supporting the Shinde government. Apart from this, 106 BJP MLAs also have support for the government.

It is worth noting that after Eknath Shinde rebelled last month, the Mahavikas Aghadi-led coalition government fell. On June 30, Eknath Shinde became the Chief Minister with the support of BJP. While Devendra Fadnavis took over as Deputy CM. However, other ministers have not taken oath. This created quite a stir in the Shinde faction, as it is being said that several rebel leaders of Shinde's camp may be appointed as ministers. On the other hand, Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray has filed a petition seeking disqualification of Shinde and 15 MLAs of his faction.