Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 23 (ANI): In yet another setback to the Uddhav Thackeray faction amid the ongoing political crisis, Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Fatak, who was believed to be a close associate of the chief minister and was flown to Surat as an emissary where rebel MLAs were initially camping, has switched sides to join the Eknath Shinde-led faction.

Notably, Fatak is not an MLA but an MLC.

The situation for Thackeray continues to become grimmer with his close aide switching sides and the chief minister himself falling short of numbers with only 13 MLAs being in his faction at present.

Notably, a total of 42 Maharashtra MLAs are present with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde while only 13 are with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday held the central government led by the BJP responsible for the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra where around 40 Shiv Sena MLAs have revolted against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and are currently camping in Guwahati.

Kharge alleged that the BJP-led Centre is attempting to "destabilise" the "strong" Maha Vikas Aghadi government in view of the forthcoming presidential poll next month as they need numbers to get their presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu victorious in the poll slated to be held on July 18.

"The MLAs were first taken to Surat where there is a BJP rule, then they were shifted to Guwahati. The BJP wants to destabilise the Maharashtra government. MVA is a strong government that the BJP is attempting to destabilise. The BJP wants that there should not be a single non-BJP government in this country," Kharge alleged.

"The presidential poll is also forthcoming. They need the numbers also. So they want to topple the government before the presidential election. We can say that the Central government and the BJP are responsible for this. They want to gain power by destabilising the stable government in the state," the Congress leader hit out at the BJP adding that they "did the same in the past too in Karnataka, MP and Goa".

Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde-led rebel faction of the Shiv Sena on Thursday released photographs of Sena MLA Nitin Deshmukh who returned to Maharashtra a day ago and alleged that he was forcibly taken to Surat in Gujarat. (ANI)