Aaditya Thackeray alleges MLAs belonging to Uddhav camp, were locked up inside office

|HT|

Ahead of the voting for the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, a ruckus was created in the Vishan Bhavan with a notice appearing outside the office of the Sena legislature party. "The office is closed as per instructions of the Shiv Sena legislature party," the notice written in Marathis said. As former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray reached the Assembly for Sunday's voting, he alleged that some Sena MLAs, belonging to the Uddhav camp, were locked up inside the office. "We have closed the party office in the Assembly and the key is with us. We have to go to the House together. They had kept some of our MLAs locked up. What is the big deal if we have locked up the office," Aaditya said. “Before this test (Floor test) there is a morality test for MLAs. Shiv Sena has issued a whip. It will be known in the time to come that against whom action will be taken,” Aaditya Thackeray said.

The Sena versus Sena battle intensified on Sunday before the Speaker election as both the Shinde faction and the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena claimed the Shiv Sena party office in the Assembly leading to a commotion. As the voting concluded, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar, a first-time legislator, won against Uddhav Sena-NCP and Congress's Ranjan Salvi and became the speaker of the Assembly. Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal said Shiv Sena MLAs have voted against the party whip.

The speaker election was the first step of the Sena versus Sena battle after Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister following his rebellion against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. On Monday, Shinde will have to prove majority in the house.

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