SAI

Nihar Thackeray is the son of the late Bindumadhav Thackeray - who was the eldest son of the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray. He is thus the nephew of ex-CM and Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and cousin of former state minister Aditya Thackeray. He is married to Ankita, the daughter of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Harshvardhan Patil, and is likely to launch his political career under the tutelage of Shinde.

Koshyari's visit - details of which are not yet known - comes a day after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde abruptly cancelled his New Delhi trip late on Wednesday. However, Shinde has reiterated that the much-delayed cabinet expansion "will happen very soon" though he did not specify any date for the same. The opposition Nationalist Congress Party-Congress-Shiv Sena lashed out at the 29-day old Bharatiya Janata Party-propped Shinde government which took office on June 30 for the repeated postponement of the cabinet formation.

The development comes 10 days after the MPs walked over en masse to the Shinde group, named Rahul Shewale as their parliamentary party leader and even submitted a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. "I have sought disqualification of the 12 Shiv Sena rebel MPs," Vinayak Raut, the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party Leader, told media persons after meeting the Speaker this afternoon in New Delhi.

Visiting the national capital for at least the 5th time in 28 days since he took office, Shinde is likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party President J. P. Nadda and other leaders in the capital. However, BJP's Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis is not accompanying him on this trip to New Delhi, fueling fresh speculation in political circles.

The Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, with support from the BJP, toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray last month. Patil also lauded Fadnavis' role as the ex-Leader of Opposition and how he constantly exposed the "misdoings" of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress alliance for the past two and half years.

A three-judge headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising justices Krishan Murari and Hima Kohli asked the legislative secretary of Maharashtra to keep the records safe and the parties, involved in the Maharashtra matter, to frame issues which they likely to raise before the court and sought their replies. The bench observed that some issues involved in the Maharashtra political crisis may need to be referred to a larger constitutional bench for consideration.

The Shinde group's newly-named Shiv Sena Leader in Lok Sabha Rahul Shewale said that Thackeray had allegedly discussed the issue of alliance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an hour and also with the party leaders. "At our meetings recently, Thackeray had stated how he had made all possible efforts to rebuild the alliance with the BJP, but could not do it. He also asked us (MPs) to make our own attempts for a tie-up," Shewale added.

He added that the 12 MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted a letter to this effect as the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party Group in the Lower House. "While Rahul Shewale is the new Shiv Sena group leader, Bhavana Gawali is now the chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha," said Shinde. The CM also made it clear that the whips issued by Gawali will now be applicable to all the 18 Shiv Sena MPs in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking to mediapersons, he said that the 12 MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted a letter to the effect as a Shiv Sena Party Group in the Lower House. "While Rahul Shewale is the new Shiv Sena Group Leader, Bhavana Gawali is the Chief Whip of the party in Lok Sabha," said Shinde.

NCP Chief Spokesperson Mahesh Tapase, NCP Youth President Suraj Chavan, and MLC Amol Mitkari strongly slammed former minister Ramdas Kadam, who was sacked as a Deputy Leader by Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Monday. At a media briefing, Kadam, weeping uncontrollably before the mediapersons, alleged that he was "deeply grieved" to witness the Sena collapsing in this manner and squarely blamed NCP's Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar for its decimation.