Right after the oath ceremony, Shinde changed the profile picture of his Twitter handle to one with Balasaheb Thackeray, a fiery Hindutva icon and the mascot of Maratha pride.
While the Shiv Sena rebels have managed to clinch power in Maharashtra with the BJP’s support, the battle for controlling the party is on.
The Shinde faction has declared in the Supreme Court that they are the real Sena. His argument is that Thackeray has diluted the Hindutva ideology of of Bal Thackeray by forming a coalition with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, which he called an “unnatural alliance”.
Thackeray resigned as the Chief Minister on Thursday after the Supreme Court refused to stay the trust vote ordered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
Signing off amid cries of ‘betrayal’, he targeted Shinde, saying that his party made auto-rickshaw drivers and handcart pullers MPs and MLAs. Notably, Shinde was an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane.
With inputs from NDTV
Supreme Court holds Nupur responsible for igniting tension 