“We are still in Shiv Sena. There is a misunderstanding that we have left the party,” said rebel Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar.
Guwahati: Moments after Shiv Sena said they will approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the rebel MLAs, Shiv Sena MLA in the rebel camp Deepak Kesarkar said their faction should be given recognition and if that does not happen, they will move court and prove their numbers.
“Recognition should be given to our faction, if it isn’t given, we will go to court and prove our existence and numbers. We have the required number but we respect Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and won’t speak against him. We must follow the path on which we fought Assembly elections,” said Kesarkar to the media.
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He added, “We are still in Shiv Sena. There is a misunderstanding that we have left the party. We have just separated our faction. We have 2-3rd majority to follow the path we wanted. Our new leader (Eknath Shinde) was chosen by majority. They do not have more than 16-17 MLAs. There is no need to merge. Our faction will be given different recognition and we aren’t merging with any other party.”
Kesarkar also said that no party is paying their hotel expenses and added that they reached Radisson Blu after their leader Eknath Shinde asked them to reach Guwahati. He also said that the rebel MLAs will pay the hotel expenses on their own.
Earlier in the day, Kesarkar had said that the group of rebel MLAs are calling themselves Shiv Sena Balasaheb. Reacting to it, Maharashtra Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray said, “Nobody else can use Bal Thackeray’s name.” Shiv Sena also announced that disqualification notices will be served to 16 rebel MLAs.
