Sena members ditching party hurt: Uddhav Thackeray

Aurangabad: Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Tuesday that he felt hurt when some members ditched his party even after enjoying benefits from the party. His statement comes a day after another local Sena MLA, Santosh Bangar, also left the party to join Eknath Shinde just before the test vote, PTI reported.

But Bangar was recently seen pleading for the rebel MLAs to return back to Sena at the starting times of the rebellion. Bangar is the MLA of Kalamnuri in the Hingoli district.

Meanwhile, Thackeray told Shiv Sena leaders in a government guest house in Hingoli by phone that he would visit the place soon. This was after Bangar joined Shinde and voted later in favour of the trust vote in the Assembly on Monday.

In the meeting, Thackeray had told Sena leaders that the rebel MLAs left the party even enjoying meaty positions. "But those who didn't get anything are with me. I shall fight and reinvigorate Sena. I will come to (Hingoli) soon to meet you," Mr Thackeray told the party workers.

Mr Shinde said Sena workers were shocked to see Mr Bangar joining the Shinde group at the last moment.

Saying that Sena workers were shocked seeing Bangar's departure at the last moment, he said, "Shiv Sena is intact. The Sena workers who were informed about the meeting attended it."

One video had shown Mr Bangar sobbing and saying that the environment in the state had turned bad and all dissidents with Shinde must return to the party fold as Uddhav Thackeray would surely forgive them.

Hailing Sena as followers of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Bal Thackeray, he said it was everyone's duty to keep the saffron flag of Hindutva flying high without taints.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Shinde won the floor test in the state Assembly on the final day of the two-day special session of the House. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. With Bangar's crossover, the tally of Sena legislators in the Shinde camp went up to 40.