india

Updated: Nov 22, 2019 16:12 IST

Shiv Sena leader Abdul Sattar has issued a warning against those who may try to poach his party’s legislators ahead of the formation of government in Maharashtra.

Abdul Sattar, who represents the Sillod assembly constituency in Aurangabad district, has threatened people against luring away the Sena’s members of legislative assembly (MLA) with physical violence.

“If anyone tries to break away any Shiv Sena MLA then I will smash their head. I will also break their leg,” Sattar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Thursday.

Sattar’s comments came amid reports of unrest over the alliance with ideologically opposite parties – Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – but senior Sena leaders have dismissed it.

“The reports that our MLAs are unhappy are baseless. We are a disciplined party and have full faith in Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray,” senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde said.

Shinde also said that Thackeray has been unanimously empowered by the MLAs to take a decision on behalf of the party.

“It rules out any question of dissent,” he said.

The Shiv Sena intends to fly out its lawmakers to Congress-ruled Rajasthan and sent out a message to its MLAs to come for the meeting on Friday with a change of clothes and identity documents such as Aadhaar card.

The Sena has been holding talks with Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress for the last few days in an attempt to firm up an alliance to form a government in Maharashtra with the two parties.

Leaders of the three unlikely allies have said the talks are in the final stages and they are set to seal the alliance at a meeting of the senior leaders of the parties in Mumbai on Friday.

The parties are also expected to announce their power-sharing pact and may also stake claim to form the government if Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is in Mumbai over the weekend.

The BJP and Sena, which fought the assembly elections in Maharashtra together, fell out over the chief minister’s position and equal distribution of portfolios, ending a three-decade-old alliance.

Maharashtra plunged into political uncertainty soon after the October 24 assembly election results threw up a hung House, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at 105 seats, the Sena at 56, the NCP at 54 and the Congress at 44. Independents and smaller parties won 29 seats.

Governor BS Koshyari invited the BJP, Sena and NCP, respectively, but no party could prove a majority within the prescribed deadline.

President’s Rule was imposed in Maharashtra on November 12 after the governor told the Centre that no party was in a position to form the government in the state.