On Tuesday, when Shivsena MLAs rebelled against Maharashtra CM and Shivsena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray, he sent his confidant Milind Narvekar and Ravindra Phatak to negotiate with the disgruntled MLAs in Surat. This simple move by CM Thackeray showed how much faith he had in Sena MLC from Thane region but on Thursday, Uddhav Thackeray got a rude shock as Phatak joined the Eknath Shinde led rebel camp.
There are currently 37 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs after Sanjay Rathod and Agriculture Minister of Maharashtra Dadaji Bhuse joined the Eknath Shinde camp. As a result, Eknath Shinde and the other MLAs can now formally announce that they are leaving the Shiv Sena without losing their MLA status in accordance with the anti-defection law. Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, so in order to escape legal repercussions, the rebel camp needs 37 MLAs, or two-thirds, of that number.
Who is Ravindra Phatak?
Ravindra Phatak is not an MLA but a member of legislative council of Shivsena representing Thane local authorities constituency. Earlier he had unsuccessfully contested MLA election from Thane Vidhan Sabha constituency in 2014.
- 2002: Elected as corporator in Thane Municipal Corporation
- 2005: Elected as standing Committee chairman of Thane Municipal Corporation
- 2007: Re-elected as corporator in Thane Municipal Corporation
- 2012: Re-elected as corporator in Thane Municipal Corporation
- 2012: Elected as standing Committee chairman of Thane Municipal Corporation
- 2015: Re-elected as corporator in Thane Municipal Corporation
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