The Maharashtra Chief Minister has been appointed by his group as Shiv Sena party chief, a post so far held by Uddhav Thackeray, said rebel Sena MLA and state agriculture minister Abdul Sattar.
The Shinde faction's decision signifies a key change in its position. Earlier, the faction had appointed Shinde as the Shiv Sena's chief leader, while it had maintained at that time that Uddhav Thackeray continued to be the party chief.
Sattar said the Shinde team's national executive had passed a one-line resolution appointing the CM as party chief and national leader of Shiv Sena. "Before submitting our affidavit to court, all our 40 MLAs, 16 Sena MPs and party office-bearers unanimously passed this resolution. Shinde's name has been referred to as party chief in the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court," he said.
Sattar's comments came as the hearing on pleas on disqualification of MLAs of the two Sena factions is going on in Supreme Court and the fight for the 'real' Sena is before the Election Commission.
In July this year, the Shinde faction had appointed Shinde as chief leader in the new-party executive, a newly-created post, the faction had also appointed its own leaders and deputy leaders.
Sattar said all the appointments they had made were based on the Shiv Sena constitution. Sattar further claimed on Tuesday, "See the crowds in the Shiv Sena's rallies and how popular CM Eknath Shinde is. Anyone can stop him and talk to him, he's always available for the people and his workers, the Shiv Sainiks. That is why there are lakhs of people with him".