Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has been calling his faction the "real Shiv Sena".
While the battle for the claim to Shiv Sena is on in the Supreme Court, the Shinde camp is looking for a new Shivsena Bhavan -- a party office for the breakaway faction. Many claim the rebel faction is trying to set up a parallel Sena headquarters. Apart from Shivsena Bhavan, they are also planning to open new shakhas or local party offices everywhere, sources said.
No location has been fixed yet for the new Bhavan, but they are looking for a place near the existing Shivsena Bhavan in Mumbai's Dadar, sources said.
Rubbishing speculations of a parallel Sena Bhavan, newly inducted Maharashtra minister Uday Samant called it a misconception.
"There is a misconception that a parallel Shivsena Bhavan is being made in Dadar. However, we are trying to find a central office so that the CM can meet common people. We respect Shivsena Bhavan and it will remain so," he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has been calling his faction the "real Shiv Sena" and a follower of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology while accusing the Uddhav Thackeray-led group of straying from the party founder Bal Thackeray's ideals.
Earlier this week, Mr Shinde, who formed a new government in the state by joining forces with the BJP, expanded his cabinet after mounting criticism of a "two-person government". The Thackeray faction has claimed that administering ministerial oath to rebels MLAs, whose disqualification pleas are pending before the Supreme Court, amounted to "murder of democracy and the Constitution".
Mr Shinde on Tuesday expanded his two-member ministry, 41 days after taking oath as the Chief Minister by inducting 18 ministers, nine each from his rebel Shiv Sena group and the BJP.
The Thackeray faction is also fighting to keep their election symbol as the Shinde camp stakes claim over that as well. The Election Commission (EC) has reportedly given the Uddhav Thackeray faction 15 more days to submit documents in support of its claim on the party's election symbol -- a "bow and arrow".
Mr Shinde along with 39 other Sena legislators had rebelled against the party leadership in June this year, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The MVA consisted of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. The Shinde faction said Mr Thackeray had
Eknath Shinde took oath as chief minister on June 30 along with BJP leader and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.