An emotional Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday offered to quit as Maharashtra Chief Minister and extended an olive branch to rebel Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, saying he will be happy if a Shiv Sainik succeeds him, adding a new twist to the ongoing political crisis that threatens to bring down his coalition government of two-and-a-half years.

Breaking his silence over the revolt led by Shinde, a cabinet minister and Sena strongman from Thane, Thackeray said he was ready to step down if the rebel leader and MLAs supporting him, all camping in Guwahati in the BJP-ruled Assam, declare that they don't want him to continue as CM.

In an 18-minute live webcast which was delayed by 30 minutes, Thackeray, who tested positive for Covid -19 earlier in the day, made an emotional appeal to the rebels as well as common Shiv Sainiks and admitted to being inexperienced and clarified that a spine surgery late last year kept him away from meeting people.

The CM said he was ready to give up the post of party president as well if Shiv Sainiks feel he isn't capable of leading the outfit which is heading the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which also includes the NCP and the Congress.

"Why make statements from Surat (where rebels headed first on Monday night) and other places. Come and tell me on my face that I am incompetent to handle the post of Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president. I will resign immediately. I will keep my resignation letter ready and you can come and take it to the Raj Bhavan," he said.

The CM said he would be happy if a Shiv Sainik succeeds him to the top constitutional post.

Recalling the events of November 2019 when the MVA took shape, Thackeray said he agreed to become CM despite his political inexperience after NCP president Sharad Pawar suggested him to take up the job.

The MVA came into existence despite the Congress and the NCP being Shiv Sena's political adversaries for several decades, he said.

Thackeray said he was shocked at the ongoing political developments in the state, which started on Monday night when Shinde (58) raised a banner of revolt and landed in a hotel in Surat, around 280km from Mumbai, with a bunch of disgruntled MLAs.

''If my own people do not want me, I don't want to stick to power. I am ready with my resignation letter even if one rebel comes and tells me face to face that he doesn't want me as chief minister. I am also ready to quit as Shiv Sena president if Shiv Sainiks tell me so. I face challenges head on and never turn my back on them,'' he said.

Thackeray said he does not run away from responsibilities and reiterated his commitment to Hindutva.

"I am a man who does any task assigned to me with full determination. These days there is a talk about the Shiv Sena not being the party of (founder) Balasaheb Thackeray and giving up Hindutva,'' he said.

The CM said rebels were seeking to appropriate the Hindutva plank and raising question mark on the Shiv Sena's commitment to the ideology.

''Hindutva is Shiv Sena's breath. I was the first CM to speak about Hindutva in the Legislative Assembly," Thackeray said.

Attacking Shinde without naming him, the CM said all Sena leaders who have become ministers since 2014 (when the party was a constituent of the BJP-led government) owe their success to the organization after the death of Bal Thackeray.

Shinde was a member of the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet (2014-19).

"Balasaheb died in 2012. We contested the assembly elections on our own in 2014 and won 63 seats (Sena later joined the BJP government)," he said.

Thackeray said some rebel MLAs have told the party they want to come back from Guwahati, where they have moved from Surat, and alleged some of the legislators have been coerced or intimidated.

The Sena president thanked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Pawar and the state bureaucracy for standing by him despite his inexperience in governance and added that he was voted among top 5 CMs in terms of administrative performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shinde has claimed the support of 46 MLAs.

In 56 years, Shiv Sena faces 4th rebellion, 1st under Uddhav's watch

Mumbai: Despite being a party of committed cadres with unflinching loyalty to leadership of the day, the Shiv Sena has been vulnerable to rebellions in its ranks and it has seen revolts by prominent figures on four occasions, three of them under the watch of its charismatic founder Bal Thackeray, with Eknath Shinde becoming the latest leader to join the list.

The rebellion by Shinde, a Cabinet minister who has walked away with a bunch of Shiv Sena MLAs, is most significant in the outfit's 56-year-old history as it threatens to bring down the party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, while the other revolts took place when it was not in power in the state.

The present revolt, which started taking shape post Monday midnight after Legislative Council poll results, throws a big challenge before Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as the three previous revolts took place when his father Bal Thackeray was still around.

The Sena witnessed the first major jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the OBC face of the party who was also credited with expanding the organization's base in rural parts of Maharashtra, decided to leave the party.

Bhujbal had cited "non-appreciation" from the party leadership as the reason for leaving the party.

Despite Bhujbal having helped the Sena to win a sizeable number of seats in parts of Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray had appointed Manohar Joshi as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

In the subsequent winter session in Nagpur, Bhujbal along with 18 Sena MLAs left the party and announced their support to the Congress which was then ruling the state. But, 12 rebel MLAs returned to the Sena fold the same day.

Bhujbal and other rebel MLAs were recognized by the then-Assembly speaker as a separate group and they did not face any action.

It was an audacious move because Shiv Sena workers were well known for their aggressive approach (towards dissidence). They even attacked the official residence of Chhagan Bhujbal in Mumbai, which is generally guarded by the state police force, a senior political journalist told PTI.

Bhujbal, however, lost the 1995 Assembly election from Mumbai to the then-Shiv Sena leader Bala Nandgaonkar, and later shifted base to Nashik district.

The veteran politician joined the NCP when Sharad Pawar formed the party after leaving the Congress in 1999. Bhujbal (74) is currently a minister and cabinet colleague of Shinde in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government.

In 2005, the Shiv Sena faced another challenge when former chief minister Narayan Rane left the party and joined the Congress.

Rane, who subsequently left the Congress, is currently a BJP Rajya Sabha member and also a Union minister.

The next shock to the Sena came in 2006 when Uddhav Thackeray's cousin Raj Thackeray decided to leave the party and form his own political outfit - the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

Raj Thackeray had then said his fight was not with the Sena leadership, but with others surrounding the party leadership and not letting others in. In the 2009 election to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the MNS won 13 seats. Its tally in Mumbai was one more than the Shiv Sena.

The Shiv Sena is currently facing another rebellion by a section of its MLAs led by senior state minister Eknath Shinde, a four-time MLA from Thane district and a popular figure in the organization.

Political journalist Prakash Akolkar, who has written a book on the party, said, The Sena leadership is taking some of its leaders for granted. Such an attitude has always backfired, but party is not ready to change its stance. "Now, times have changed and most of the MLAs come to the party with a lot of expectations, he said. If those expectations are not addressed properly, such a revolt is bound to happen, he said.

The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs, the NCP 53 and the Congress 44 MLAs. All three constitute the MVA. The opposition BJP has 106 seats in the Assembly.

To escape disqualification under the anti-defection law, Shinde needs the support of 37 MLAs. The rebel leader has claimed 46 Sena MLAs are with him.

PTI