We are confident the court will rule in our favour: Rebel MLA

Mumbai/Nashik: Rebel Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar, who is in Guwahati, told TOI on phone that the group supporting Eknath Shinde will move the Bombay high court early next week to challenge the decision of Uddhav Thackeray to replace Shinde from the party chief whip’s post and to appoint a new MLA to the post. “We will be moving court by Monday or Tuesday.Our group has the backing of the majority of Sena legislators. We are confident the court would give its verdict in our favour,” Kesarkar added, stating the rebel group would also make a similar move if the 16 MLAs are disqualified.
Addressing a press conference virtually, Kesarkar said, “Our new leader has been chosen by the majority. They didn’t have more than 16-17 MLAs.” Just 16 or 17 people cannot replace the group leader of 55 MLAs, he said.
“The MLAs had told party president Uddhav Thackeray we should stay with the party with whom we had contested election... When so many people voice the same opinion, there must be some substance in it,” he said, referring to the Shinde group’s demand that Sena should revive its alliance with BJP.
To a question about whether the Shinde group will withdraw support to the Thackeray government, Kesarkar said, “Why should we withdraw support? We are the Shiv Sena. We have not hijacked the party, NCP and Congress have hijacked it.”
To a question about when the rebel MLAs would return to Mumbai, he said they will come back “at an appropriate time.”
“At present, there is pressure, we don't feel it is safe to return,” Kesarkar said, referring to incidents of attacks on offices and residences of rebel MLAs.
He said that the rebel MLAs decided to come together as the Shiv Sena was facing a survival crisis. “We want to save the party. We are not even seeking his (Uddhav Thackeray’s) resignation,” he added.
“It is true we have a major issue with NCP and its insulting treatment of us. Many MLAs who are with us here have been raising this concern with the party leadership for months, but it was never addressed,” he said.
“We were not treated with respect by the NCP ministers. We were always sidelined by them. In one instance, a good scheme was cancelled by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. When I raised a complaint against it, he told me his decision can only be negated by the CM. However, CM never cancelled it,” he said.