Ahead of floor test, one more Sena MLA joins Shinde faction; tally rises to 40

Santosh Bangar, the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, on Monday morning switched over to the Shinde camp.

Earlier, in a jolt to Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the Eknath Shinde-led government’s floor test, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar had on Sunday reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.

Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.

The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction, which will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote.

If these MLAs refuse to follow the whip, they face disqualification.

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