New Delhi: Amid the ongoing row over Maharashtra Urban Development Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde going incommunicado along with other party MLAs since the MLC poll results were declared on Monday, party legislator Nitin Deshmukh’s wife has filed a police complaint of her husband going ‘missing’, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported a police official as saying on Tuesday. The police official said that the Shiv Sena MLA’s wife Pranjali Deshmukh has filed a complaint at the Civil Lines police station in Akola.
He added she has in her complaint stated that her husband was not reachable since Monday night and asked the police to find him soon.
Nitin Deshmukh is the Shiv Sena MLA from Balapur in Maharashtra’s Akola district.
Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde has been removed as the Shiv Sena legislative group leader in the Maharashtra Assembly.
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Shinde, according to sources, is said to be holed up in a five-star hotel in Gujarat’s Surat city along with 25 Shiv Sena MLAs.
Shinde is reportedly upset amid allegations of cross-voting.
The political developments came a day after the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback in the Maharashtra legislative council polls when it lost one out of the six seats it contested.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five seats in the Maharashtra legislative council election, while the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged two seats each.
In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the Shiv Sena has 55 MLAs, NCP (53), Congress (44), Bahujan Vikas Agahdi (three), Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and Prahar Janshakti Party two each. MNS, CPI-M, PWP, Swabhimani Paksha, Rashtriya Samaj Party, Jansurajya Shakti Party and Krantikari Shetkari Paksha have one MLA each. There are 13 independent MLAs. The BJP has 106 MLAs.