Shiv Sena

It may be noted that Shinde had mounted a rebellion in June, flying away with over 40 Sena MLAs with the help of the BJP.

In his bail plea, Sanjay Raut had said that the case against him is a perfect example of “abuse of power” and “political vendetta”.

The Thackeray group had urged the top court to stop the Election Commission from deciding who forms the real Shiv Sena and its symbol. The court gave a decision after hearing the case.

Eelier, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had told the Supreme Court while appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray camp that democracy is in peril and whatever happened in Maharashtra is a mockery of democratic institutions.

The Thackeray faction said that in Gujarat and Assam, there was no Shiv Sena cadre and only BJP cadre was “providing full logistical support to the MLAs”.

Although the reason is yet to be known, the moves comes barely a few weeks after the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

The bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India, asked both the sides to file documents, compilations and replies by August 1 and adjourned the matter.

On July 1, Sanjay Raut was appeared before the ED to record his statement in connection with a money laundering case. The Shiv Sena leader had spent nearly 10 hours at ED office.

A day after Eknath Shinde had taken oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had, on July 1, sacked Shinde from all positions of the party.

A day after 16 party MPs suggested to support NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu in in Presidential elections, party chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Tuesday announced to support her.