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The leader said that Shinde spoke to Raj Thackeray, the nephew of former Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, over the phone twice and also enquired about his health – Raj was discharged from hospital two days ago after hip surgery.

Let’s take a look at what Shinde calling up Raj means:

Merger on cards?

Well, the most obvious takeaway from this could be a possible merger.

Highly placed sources in the Shinde camp told Indian Express they were eyeing three options: the MNS, Prahar Janashakti (whose MLAs have already extended it support) and the BJP  “if the situation so demands.”

Deepak Kesarkar told the newspaper, “We are not going to merge with any party. We are very much a part of the Sena. Since a majority of the members are on our side, we should be considered the real Shiv Sena.”

Add to the fact that the MNS has been attacking the Uddhav-led Sena for “compromising on Hindutva” – the very charge that the breakaway group has levelled against it. And merging with Raj’s group would help Shinde retain a share of the Thackeray political legacy, the newspaper noted.

With just one MLA, the MNS is a non-entity in Maharashtra at the moment.  As Indian Express noted, Raj and Shinde have always shared very cordial relations.

With both groups heavily influenced by Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva ideology, such a move may also take the sting out of the protests by pro-Uddhav Shiv Sainiks, India Today noted.

The media outlet further noted that Shinde’s camp would face an uphill task in getting quickly recognised as an independent political party. Merging with the MNS might be an easier route ahead of the presidential polls on 18 July.

Good for BJP?

Such a merger could be beneficial to the BJP in terms of both optics and long-term strategy.

With the BJP keen to stake its claim to form the next government with “the newly merged entity” but wary of welcome Shinde’s camp into the fold as that will validate the charges of engineering the rebellion, merging with the MNS can be an option, as per India Today.

Recently, there were talks that the MNS could merge with the BJP or have a seat-sharing deal for the coming municipal polls. If Shinde’s camp merges with the MNS, eventually, they all could be into the broader BJP fold, as per the report.

‘Victory of Bal Thackeray’

Shinde on Monday termed the relief by the Supreme Court to him and other dissident Sena lawmakers as the victory of Bal Thackeray's Hindutva and the ideals of his mentor Anand Dighe. The Supreme Court has kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought responses to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.

The top court also refused to pass any interim order on the plea of the Maharashtra government that there should not be any floor test in the Assembly and said they can always approach it in case of illegality.

“This is the victory of Hindu hridaysamrat Balasaheb's Hindutva and the ideals of (the late) Dharamaveer Anand Dighe,” tweeted Shinde, who is camping with the dissident MLAs in Guwahati. In Thane, Shinde's son and party MP Shrikant Shinde said Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal had sent the disqualification notice to his father and 15 other dissident legislators under pressure which is evident from the supreme court order.

“The speaker has rights in the Assembly. He has the power if anyone goes against the whip in the legislature. It does not apply to anyone not coming for any meeting. The 'tughlaqi farman' (the disqualification notice) was issued (by him) under pressure and the court has shown that today,” the Kalyan MP said

Earlier on Sunday, Shinde, who is currently camping in Assam along with other MLAs, lashed out at the party for allegedly supporting the culprits of the Mumbai bomb blast, Dawood Ibrahim and those responsible for the taking lives of innocent people.

Taking to Twitter the rebel MLA said that is why they took such a decision while adding "it is better to die" than follow such a decision.

"How can Balasaheb Thackeray's Shiv Sena support people who had a direct connection with culprits of Mumbai bomb blast, Dawood Ibrahim and those responsible for taking lives of innocent people of Mumbai. That's why we took such a step, it's better to die," Shinde said in a tweet.

He further said the rebel MLAs would consider it their destiny even if they had to die to follow the ideology of Hindutva.

"Even if we have to die to follow the ideology of Hindutva, we will consider it as our destiny," he added.

His remark came after Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Raut called the rebel MLAs "living corpses" and said that their "souls are dead".

"40 MLAs in Guwahati are living corpses, their souls are dead. Their bodies will be sent directly to the Assembly for post-mortem when they come back. They know what can happen in the fire that has been lit here," Raut said while addressing party workers.

However, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed that on May 20, CM Uddhav Thackeray had asked Eknath Shinde to become CM if he wanted to, but at that time he did drama and now just a month later, he rebelled.

Notably, former minister and Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar, who is now in the Eknath Shinde camp, had said that the MLAs of the Shinde camp are ready to face the floor test in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly at any time, but first recognition should be given to Eknath Shinde faction.

Interestingly, the Shinde faction named their group 'Shiv Sena Balasaheb'.

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