Following a meeting with Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena, on Thursday, a Shiv Sena MLA announced its legislators will stay at the Hotel Rangsharda in Mumbai. The meeting comes amid continued deadlock between the BJP and Shiv Sena on who will become chief minister in their coalition government. The BJP had won 105 seats and the Shiv Sena 56 seats in the Assembly elections.
Gulabrao Patil, a Shiv Sena MLA, told ANI that the Shiv Sena MLAs "will be staying at Hotel Rangsharda for next two days. We will do whatever Uddhav Sahab asks us to do."
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The meeting with Uddhav Thackeray has not shed much light on the future of the Shiv Sena's plans, two weeks after the BJP and Shiv Sena won an outright majority in the 288-member Assembly. The Shiv Sena had alleged the BJP may attempt to "poach its MLAs", raising fears of a round of "resort politics" as the parties jostled for primacy in negotiations.
Interestingly, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had declared on Thursday that no MLA of the Shiv Sena, Congress or NCP would cross over to the BJP. On October 3, Raut had claimed at a press conference that the Shiv Sena had the support of 170 MLAs and sought an invitation from the governor to form the government.