In 56 years, Shiv Sena faces fourth rebellion, first under Uddhav's watch

Eknath Shinde becomes the latest leader to join the list Shiv Sena rebels

Despite being a party of committed cadres with unflinching loyalty to leadership of the day, the Shiv Sena has been vulnerable to rebellions in its ranks and it has seen revolts by prominent figures on four occasions, three of them under the watch of its charismatic founder Balasaheb Thackeray, with Eknath Shinde becoming the latest leader to join the list.

The rebellion by Mr. Shinde, a Cabinet Minister who has walked away with a bunch of Shiv Sena MLAs, is most significant in the outfit's 56-year-old history as it threatens to bring down the party-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, while the other revolts took place when it was not in power in the State.

The present revolt, which started taking shape post Monday midnight after Legislative Council poll results, throws a big challenge before Maharashtra Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as the three previous revolts took place when his father Bal Thackeray was still around.

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The Sena witnessed the first major jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the OBC face of the party who was also credited with expanding the organisation's base in rural parts of Maharashtra, decided to leave the party.

Mr. Bhujbal had cited "non-appreciation" from the party leadership as the reason for leaving the party.

Despite Mr. Bhujbal having helped the Sena to win a sizeable number of seats in parts of Maharashtra, Bal Thackeray had appointed Manohar Joshi as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.