Sticker Shock For Uddhav Thackeray: 40 Plus - And Growing

The sum of the missing parts was, meanwhile, growing in Assam. By 9 pm, the rebels within his party who have turned on Uddhav Thackeray, clocked 44.

When Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called a meeting of his party this afternoon - online, since he has Covid - the head count stood at a scanty 13.

The sum of the missing parts was, meanwhile, growing in Assam. By 9 pm, the rebels within his party who have turned on Mr Thackeray, clocked 44. They have elected, as their leader, Eknath Shinde, who has yet to resign as a senior minister in the Maharashtra government.

It is from this unlikely location - the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati - that Mr Shinde, 58, has closed his grip on the Shiv Sena, a party founded by Mr Thackeray's father. The Sena has 55 MLAs; to be recognised as the bona fide party, and not a splinter group, 37 MLAs are needed. Mr Shinde has more than that - which suggests Mr Thackeray stands to lose the lead role not just in the Maharashtra government but in his party.

Mr Shinde pulled out of Mumbai on Monday night in a luxury bus that drove into Surat. A dawn guesstimate put his group at about 18.  By noon, that had changed to 23. Since then, there has been a revision upwards nearly every few hours. The location has also been amended - from Surat, where Mr Thackeray's emissaries were able to meet with some of the rebels, to far-away Assam, much tougher to breach.