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Shortly after Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath on November 23, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to poach his MLAs or the legislators of his two alliance partners, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The Sena is the strongest in Mumbai and he was confident that the party could hold its own.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena’s trade union arm, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, which has staff unions in most star hotels in Mumbai played a role in guarding the legislators of the three parties who were put up in three different hotels in the city. Sena cadre were also posted outside the hotels to keep a close eye on the people visited the hotels and spot any suspicious activities.
A Sena leader said party affiliated unions at the airport were also told to keep an eye on NCP MLAs being taken out of the city.
On Sunday, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and Sena secretary Milind Narvekar managed to intercept NCP MLA Sanjay Bansode at a hotel near the Mumbai Airport as he was set to fly out of the city. According to the Sena insiders, the police and a BJP functionary were present at
the hotel where Bansode was, but they fled soon after Shinde and Narvekar arrived with a group of supporters. Bansode was taken to the venue of the NCP legislators’ meeting.
“It was the idea of NCP top brass to involve the Sena as they were convinced that the rivals could use the police to whisk away some of the MLAs. With the presence of Sena cadre in heavy numbers in and outside hotels, there was no trouble,”said a NCP leader who asked not to be named.
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