Uddhav Thackeray was planning to quit as Maharashtra CM after meeting PM Modi last year: Deepak Kesarkar

Uddhav Thackeray and Deepak Kesarkar. File Pic

The Shiv Sena's rebel faction on Friday claimed that Uddhav Thackeray was planning to quit as Maharashtra Chief Minister last year after talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Deepak Kesarkar, a spokesperson of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, told PTI that for Thackeray his relations with PM Modi were more important that holding on to the top post.

Kesarkar said a lot of Shiv Sena leaders were "pained" at attempts to "malign" then-Cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray's image by BJP MP and Union minister Narayan Rane by dragging him in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

"After Uddhav ji met Modi ji (in June last year), it was decided that he will quit (as CM) in the next 15 days because for him his relations (with PM) were more important (than holding post). But it was realised that he needed more time to convince his party workers," he told PTI.

The Thackeray-PM meeting in New Delhi was followed by the suspension of a dozen BJP MLAs from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for a year in July 2021 over unruly behaviour, a move which further strained ties between former allies Shiv Sena and the BJP which was then in the opposition.

Later, the talks halted after Rane, a bete noire of Thackeray, was inducted into the Union Cabinet which upset the Sena president, he said.

The talks did not go further because of "ego" issues, Kesarkar said.

All through the talks, he kept Eknath Shinde, rebel Shiv Sena leader who is now the chief minister, updated, Kesarkar said.

Reacting to Kesarkar's claims, Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande, a member of the Thackeray camp, said "He is revealing something new every day. He has been making self-contradictory statements and sounds confused."

(With inputs from PTI)