Congress ministers Thorat, Chavan meet CM Uddhav Thackeray amid political crisis

Amid the political crisis in Maharashtras ruling alliance triggered by Shiv Sena strongman Eknath Shindes rebellion leaders of MVA constituents Congress and the NCP met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situationCabinet ministers Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan of the Congress met Thackeray who heads the Shiv Sena at his official residence Varsha in south Mumbai where state NCP president and minister Jayant Patil was also presentAll eyes are on NCP president Sharad Pawar the chief architect of the Shiv Senaled ruling coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA who is likely to arrive in Mumbai soon from New Delhi where earlier in the day he convened a crucial meeting of opposition parties to decide on a common candidate for the next months presidential pollsAt the meeting several major opposition parties including the Congress the NCP and the TMC picked former Union minister Yashwant Sinha as their presidential candidateAlso Read Fearing poaching by Shiv Sena BJP flying its 106 Maharashtra MLAs to GujaratMeanwhile AICC secretary in charge of Maharashra H K Patil held one on one talks with each of the 44 party MLAsA Congress leader said Patil discussed the prevailing political situation in the state with the MLAsThe Congress a key constituent of the MVA suffered a shock defeat when its candidate Chandrakant Handore lost the state Legislative Council polls on Monday The opposition BJP got its fifth candidate elected to the Upper House of the state legislature despite lacking in numbers in the AssemblySenior party leader Naseem Khan said Handore was given a quota of 29 votes while the same was 15 for Bhai Jagtap the Congress nominee who emerged victoriousStill Handore was defeated while Jagtap scrapped through he saidShinde a Cabinet minister holding the urban development portfolio rebelled against the Shiv Sena leadership and landed in a Surat hotel with a bunch of party MLAs on Tuesday plunging the twoandahalfyear old MVA government into a crisisThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever