Uddhav Thackeray

He also said the alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will win the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls.

Supporters of both the sides are busy making preparations to attract maximum crowds for the Dahi Handi, which is part of the Janmashtami festival where youngsters called Govindas, dressed in colourful attire, make human pyramid to reach an earthen pot containing buttermilk and hung mid-air, and break it.

Speaking late Saturday night after a function in Thane district, Shinde also said he will soon visit Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh

A senior Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan official on Monday said that technically Uddhav Thackeray is still an MLC as he has not submitted a written resignation.

Uddhav Thackeray went to Raut's residence in suburban Bhandup in a car.

In the second part of his interview to Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', Thackeray said he wants not just local body polls due in Maharashtra, but also the Assembly elections and claimed the Sena will have its own CM once again for which he will tour the state to rejuvenate the party cadre.

Last month, Shinde had along with 39 other Shiv Sena MLAs and 10 independents revolted against the party leadership, leading to the collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli was urged by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray faction, that the ongoing proceedings before the poll panel needed to be stayed as it would impact the hearing here in the case.

In his first interview to Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' after stepping down as the chief minister last month, Thackeray said it was a mistake that he trusted some of the party leaders too much.

Deepak Kesarkar, the spokesperson for the Eknath Shinde faction, said Thackeray’s ”public appearances” have increased now, referring to the party outreach programmes launched by the Sena president after the collapse of his government last month.

The development assumes significance as recently the poll panel has asked the rival factions of the Shiv Sena led by Thackeray and Shinde to submit documents by August 8 in support of their claims on the election symbol -- bow and arrow -- of the political outfit.

The Sena indulges in politics for Hindutva, whereas the BJP uses Hindutva for its political interests, Thackeray claimed while addressing the Sena workers on Sunday after inaugurating a ward level party office in south Mumbai.

The city police have started issuing notices under section 149 of the CrPC, prohibiting unlawful gathering at the protest venue in the western suburb of Goregaon, he said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government announced the renaming of Aurangabad in central Maharashtra as `Sambhajinagar’ — after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s elder son Chhatrapati Sambhaji — in its last cabinet meeting on June 29, hours before Thackeray resigned.

”We are not going for the meeting. There is no message yet whether Murmu will visit Uddhavji at ’Matoshree’,” Sena’s Sindhudurg MP Vinayak Raut told PTI.

The incident took place on July 6, when Sena functionary Bhagwan Kale (55) along with other party activists went to Thackeray’s residence ’Matoshree’ in Bandra area of Mumbai to declare their support to him. Kale suffered a heart attack and died while being rushed to a hospital.

A delegation of Shiv Sena MLCs – Manisha Kayande, Sachin Ahir, Ambadas Danve, Vilas Potnis and Sunil Shinde – met Counil Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe on Monday and submitted a letter staking claim for the post of the LoP and chief whip.

A shift in Shiv Sena votes will not alter the outcome of the Presidential polls since NDA has a numerical advantage after the support its candidate received from Biju Janata Dal and other regional parties. However, Thackeray's decision to back Murmu would be a setback for the Opposition front that has fielded Yashwant Sinha as its candidate for the top constitutional post.

Shinde and Fadnavis, who assumed office on June 30, are also expected to make courtesy calls on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

He also demanded mid-term elections in Maharashtra, saying that people should be allowed to take a stand on toppling of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by him.