In a major setback to Uddhav Thackeray, 66 Shiv Sena corporations from Thane joined chief minister Eknath Shinde camp on Thursday.
Sena is currently divided in two camps with one being led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other one by Eknath Shinde, who recently revolted against his former boss and formed the government with the BJP.
When Shinde broke away with Sena, it was expected that he would be made Deputy CM. However, the BJP suprised many by allowing Shinde to takeover as CM. While the developments troubled some BJP leaders, the analysts called it a smart move by the saffron party to further strenghthen the Shinde camp and eat into whatever is left in Sena headed by Uddhav.
Today’s development shows that that strategy might be proving to be effective. However, it needs to be underlined that Thane is a stronghold of Shinde, so corporators coming with him may not be that surprising.
So far, Shinde has support of 40 of 55 Sena MLAs. When revolt began, Shinde had the support of 39, and later one more leader from the Uddhav group defected him and joined the rebel camp.
