400 Shiv Sena workers in Mumbai join BJP, say 'unhappy with alliance'

Shiv Sena faced a major set back on Thursday when 400 of its party workers joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) at an event organized in Dharavi on Wednesday.The workers who joined the BJP said that they were unhappy with the party chief Uddhav Thackeray and the alliance with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). 

"I was working with Shiv Sena for 10 years. We were supporting the Hindutva ideology of Sena. I was given an office to serve people but, as Sena has decided to form the government with NCP and Congress, it is not acceptable to us. Now, we all have decided to join BJP," Ramesh Nadar, Sena leader who was heading the delegation of people joining BJP, said.

READ: Uddhav Thackeray cancels waiver to RSS-linked research facility approved by Fadnavis govt

Maha-Vikas-Aghadi formation

BJP and Shiv Sena had won the Assembly polls together with an absolute majority. Shiv Sena insisted on the chief minister's position but BJP did not settle for the demand. Shiv Sena broke the alliance with BJP and almost a month after elections, the president's rule was imposed when no party could prove a majority. The BJP-Sena which fell out squabbling over a 50-50 power-sharing and shared CM post bagged 161 seats (BJP- 105, Shiv Sena-56).

READ: Uddhav Govt Will Not Act In Biased Manner, Says Minister

Later, Shiv Sena negotiated with the NCP and the Congress to form the MVA government. The Maha Vikas Aghadi won 98 seats (NCP -54, Congress) and formed the government with Sena. On November 28, Uddhav Thackeray and six other Shiv Sena members, along with Congress and NCP took oath at the historic Shivaji Park in Mumbai. Thackeray, the leader of MVA of Sena-NCP-Congress, swore-in as the 18th Chief Minister of Maharashtra and is also the first person from his family to hold the post.

Two days after the MVA leader Uddhav Thackeray swore-in as the Chief Minister, the Shiv-Sena-Congress-NCP government was successful in proving a majority by garnering 169 votes in the floor test conducted on Saturday. The BJP walked out of the Assembly calling the session invalid, as BJP's Devendra Fadnavis alleged that the oath of the Chief Minister and MLAs were not according to constitutional norms. 

READ: CPI(M) Welcomes Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Govt's Decision To Withdraw Bhima Koregaon Cases

(With Inputs from ANI)