In A Surprise Move Shiv Sena Elects Eknath Shinde As Legislature Party Head, To Meet Governor To ‘Apprise’ Situation

The Shiv Sena on Thursday (31 October) elected Eknath Shinde as their Legislature Party leader, and announced their slated meeting with Maharashtra Governor soon.

Aditya Thackeray proposed Shinde's name for the post and Sunil Prabhu's name for the post of Chief Whip of the legislature party.

The Thackeray junior tweeted: "As an elected MLA, it was my privilege to propose the name of @mieknathshinde ji as the leader of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party for the working the legislature. @prabhu_suneel ji has been elected as chief whip of the party for the legislature."

The party is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, that has sparked speculations. Sena leader Sanjay Raut, however, said, the meeting is to "apprise" the Governor of the "situation".

The BJP legislature party met in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon and elected former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis as the leader of its legislature party. Soon after that, Fadnavis asserted, the mandate was for "grand alliance" of Sena-BJP and the two will form the government.

But Tuesday was marked with day-long exchange of rhetoric and counter-rhetoric between the two parties. First, Sena leader Sanjay Raut alleged the BJP was "stooping low". Then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis issued a statement rejecting Shiv Sena's claim of 50-50 formula, which they have been adamant about.

Later on Tuesday evening, Shiv Sena had cancelled its meeting with the BJP leadership, including close aide of Amit Shah, Bhupendra Yadav, to iron out differences.