Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wanted to resign on June 21 at 5 pm after it was clear that there was "no way out" of the political crisis, as per sources.
Sources added that NCP chief Sharad Pawar convinced Uddhav Thackeray not to resign as Maharashtra CM.
The Shiv Sena chief stopped short of resigning "not once but twice", the sources said. Thackeray, sources say, would have resigned on June 21 (last Tuesday), the day Eknath Shinde and 21 rebels moved to Surat in BJP-ruled Gujarat and went incommunicado.
Uddhav Thackeray decided to quit the same day and had planned to announce it in a Facebook Livestream around 5 pm, said sources, adding that the Shiv Sena chief had a feeling that many more rebels were waiting to cross over.
The next day, Thackeray again decided to announce his resignation. He even called a meeting of officials by way of a farewell, said the sources.
But the top leader once again learned of his intentions and stepped in.
Thackeray had called a Facebook Live at 4 pm, amid huge signs that he could resign, but it was delayed by at least half an hour.
"The reason it was delayed was that the top leader tried to talk Thackeray out of resigning," the sources said.
The leader reportedly told the Chief Minister to approach the problem calmly and strategically and fight it, instead of giving up.
When the Chief Minister finally spoke to the public, he said he was "ready with his resignation letter" but wanted the rebels to say it to his face. "I will quit if even one rebel comes to me and complains to me in person," Thackeray said.
Even after Thackeray's appeal, including a direct phone call, Eknath Shinde and the rebels flew to Assam, another BJP-ruled state, in the dead of night.
The rebel group has only grown since then. If Shinde's supporters are to be believed, there are 50-plus MLAs, including 40 from the Sena, at the five-star hotel in Guwahati that has turned into a base camp of the Maharashtra rebellion.