Eknath Shinde breaks silence, says won't cheat for power

At the centre of a political crisis in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde, who is camping in Surat with a few MLAs of his party, on Tuesday said he will never "cheat for power" and abandon the teachings of Bal Thackeray.

"We are staunch Shiv Sainiks of Balasaheb who gave us lessons on Hindutva. We will never cheat for power and will never abandon the teachings of Balasaheb and Anand Dighe for power," Shinde tweeted in Marathi, his first reaction on the ongoing political crisis triggered by him in the state.

The late Dighe, a Shiv Sena stalwart from Thane, was the political mentor of Shinde.

Shinde and a few MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena have gone incommunicado and are camping in Surat, a move putting a question mark on the stability of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation also comprising te Nationalist Congress Party and te Congress.