Maharashtra Political Crisis: Uddhav Thackeray strips portfolios of rebel MLAs

In a major move, the MVA government took away the portfolios of the Eknath Shinde camp to ensure the smooth functioning of departments. Overall, 5 Ministers and 4 Ministers of State have been divested of their portfolios owing to their unauthorized absence. These include Eknath Shinde, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Shamburaj Desai, Rajendra Yadravkar, Abdul Sattar and Bachchu Kadu. Their portfolios have been distributed among the existing Ministers in the Maharashtra Cabinet.  Minister Eknath Shinde claimed in his petition filed before the Supreme Court that 38 members of the Shiv Sena Legislative Party have withdrawn their support to the MVA government. While no formal communication in this regard has come to the fore yet, it implies that the Uddhav Thackeray-led government will collapse if the SC imposes a stay on the disqualification proceedings against the 16 rebel MLAs.