Maharashtra political crisis: Rumour about Aaditya Thackeray’s Twitter bio fake, clarifies Priyanka Chaturvedi

Aaditya Thackeray. File Pic

Amid the political turmoil in Maharashtra that is threatening to derail the Maha Vikas Aghadi and Uddhav Thackeray's chief-ministership, a fake screenshot purportedly showing Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray's Twitter bio went viral on Wednesday.

The screenshot claimed to show that Aaditya Thackeray had removed the title 'Maharashtra Environment Minister' from his Twitter bio. However, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi later clarified that the title had not been a part of Aaditya Thackeray's Twitter bio at all.

Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted: "He did not have his minister status ever on his Twitter bio. Fact check."

This comes after Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, camping first in Surat then flying to Guwahati, rebelled against his own party. Shinde, who is leading the rebellion in the Shiv Sena (which is part of the MVA along with the NCP and the Congress), on Wednesday claimed he had the support of 40 MLAs.

Yesterday, Shinde had removed "Shiv Sena" from his Twitter bio following a tweet about "Hindutva", in which he said he was a "Shiv Sainik" and would not betray the ideals he had learnt from party founder Balasaheb Thackeray for the "sake of power".

Late on Monday night, Shinde had left Mumbai with several Sena MLAs and stayed at a hotel in Gujarat's Surat. However, reportedly after holding talks with BJP leaders, he decided to move to Guwahati along with the Sena MLAs.

Shinde, along with other Shiv Sena MLAs, was staying in the Surat hotel after the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) polls. They reached Guwahati on Wednesday.

This followed suspected cross-voting in the MLC elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged five seats - a major blow to the MVA alliance government in Maharashtra. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena won two seats each, while the Congress was able to win one seat out of the total 10 seats in the Legislative Council that went to the polls on Monday.

After the MLC elections, Shinde, along with some other Shiv Sena MLAs, were holed up at Surat's Le Meridien hotel. A Sena delegation comprising Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's close aides Milind Narvekar and Ravindra Phatak reportedly met Shinde and other party legislators in Surat.

Amid the political crisis in Maharashtra that has put a question mark over the survival of the ruling MVA coalition government, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had called for a State Cabinet meeting at 1 pm on Wednesday.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article erroneously reported that Aaditya Thackeray had removed the title ‘Environment Minister' from his Twitter bio. In fact, the title was not mentioned in his Twitter bio in the first place. A correction has been made and the article updated to reflect the change. The error is regretted.