NEW DELHI: Uddhav Thackeray, who is today struggling to save his Maha Vikas Aghadi government and also the Shiv Sena, was warned about the brewing trouble in the party by none other than Eknath Shinde, who has emerged as the leader of the rebel MLAs.
Uddhav on Friday claimed that he suspected Eknath Shinde’s moves and had confronted the rebel leader.
“A few days back when I suspected this, I called Eknath Shinde and told him that what he was doing is not right and asked him to perform his duty of taking the Shiv Sena forward,” Uddhav said.

Uddhav revealed that Shinde told him about the unease in the party over the alliance with the NCP and the Congress and the feeling among MLAs that the alliance partners were trying to finish the Shiv Sena.
When Shinde told Uddhav that MLAs wanted the party to return to the BJP fold, the Sena chief asked the rebel leader to bring those MLAs to him.
Uddhav outrightly rejected the demand and told Shinde: “BJP, that defamed our party, my family, is the one you are talking about going with. Such a question doesn’t even arise. If MLAs want to go there they can, all of them can. I won’t. If someone wants to go – be it an MLA or someone else – come and tell us and then go.”
As the events have unfolded in the last four days, it is clear that Eknath Shinde was not making hollow threats and Uddhav definitely had an inkling of the anger within.
The Maharashtra chief minister accused the rebels of backstabbing him.
“Congress and NCP are supporting us today, Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi have supported us. But our own people have backstabbed us. We gave tickets to people who could not have won and we made them victorious. Those people have backstabbed us today,” he said.
Uddhav said the rebels have have no option but to go to the BJP, which, he said, has just one objective – to finish the Shiv Sena.
The Sena chief said that his party was suffering the consequences of standing with the BJP when no one else supported the saffron party.
“When BJP and Shiv Sena were considered untouchables in the name of Hindutva and nobody was ready to go with the BJP, Balasaheb said there shouldn’t be a division of Hindutva votes. We remained with the BJP and we are suffering its consequences now,” Uddhav said.
Uddhav, who has already offered to quit as the chief minister, said he is ready to leave the party also if the rebels think that he is incapable.
“If you think I’m useless and incapable of running the party, tell me. I’m ready to separate myself from the party, you can tell me. You respected me so far because Balasaheb said so. If you say I am incapable, then I am ready to quit the party right at this moment,” he said.