MAHARASHTRA POLITICAL CRISIS: CM UDDHAV THACKERAY CALLS CABINET MEETING TOMORROW

(The Quiver): A meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet has been scheduled on June 22. All Cabinet Ministers have asked to be present in the meeting, which is to take place amid the rebellion started by Eknath Shinde.

The political crisis started after two candidates each of the ruling coalition allies NCP and the Shiv Sena and four nominees of the opposition BJP on Monday night won elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC), said an official.

The majority mark in the 288-member state Assembly is 144. The BJP currently has a strength of 106 and requires 38 more MLAs to stake claim to form a government.

On Tuesday, CM Thackeray, who is also the Shiv Sena president, held a meeting where party MLAs Sunil Kadam, Dada Bhuse, Neelam Gorhe, MPs Arvind Sawant and Vinayak Raut, MLC Manisha Kayande and other leaders were present. MP Sanjay Raut asserted that the Sena is a party of loyalists and attempts by the BJP, like in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, to topple the MVA government would not succeed.