Mumbai: After rebelling against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to form a new government in Maharashtra under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs have now snubbed the party whip to vote for the Maha Vikas Aghadi Speaker candidate in the new Assembly causing further acrimony between the two sides.
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BJP candidate Rahul Narvekar won with 164 votes defeating Rajavan Salvi of Maha Vikas Aghadi, who secured 107 votes. As soon as the election of Assembly Speaker was announced Shiv Sena representative Sunil Prabhu issued a whip to its MLAs, including the rebel leaders and Eknath Shinde, to vote for MVA's Salvi. However, the Shinde group did not follow the Shiv Sena's whip and voted for BJP candidate Rahul Narvekar. Shiv Sena's Bharat Gogavale has lodged a complaint against 16 party MLAs who voted against the whip. Shinde, who became aggressive at the Sena whip, said, "Since we have a majority, the whip issued by Sunil Prabhu does not apply to us”.
