As rebellion by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde has put the future of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in jeopardy in Maharashtra, several news organisations are now claiming that the disgruntled minister has already removed the reference to the party from his Twitter bio.
This comes as efforts are currently underway to pacify Shinde and other MLAs, who are staying at the Le Meridien Hotel in Surat.
However, we checked the internet archives of Shinde's profile from 2019 to 2022 and found that he never mentioned the name of the party. In fact, his bio, at the time of writing the article, was the same as what it was back in 2021.
CLAIM
Several news media organisation like NDTV, Scroll, ABP News, The Telegraph, and Free Press Journal, reported that Shinde has dropped 'Shiv Sena' from his account.
(Note: Swipe right to view the images.)
Tweets from NDTV, Scroll, Free Press Journal, The Telegraph and ABP Live.
INTERNET ARCHIVES PRESENT A DIFFERENT PICTURE
We looked up for Shinde's profile on Wayback Machine, an internet archiving tool, and found captures from 2019 till June 2022.
None of this archives mention the part name in his bio. However, in 2019, his profile picture was the party symbol and even the cover image had a reference to the party.
2019 archive from Wayback Machine.
(Source: Archive/Altered by The Quint)
Another archive from April 2020 showed changes in the bio, but no mention of the party name. The cover image, too, was changed to Shinde's image, which mentioned the party name at the bottom.
2020 archive from Wayback Machine.
(Source: Archive/Altered by The Quint)
An archive from September 2021 shows that the bio read, 'Cabinet Minister of Urban Development and PWD (Public Undertakings) MH State | Guardian Minister, Thane & Gadchiroli Dist', but no mention of the party name.
2021 archive from Wayback Machine
(Source: Archive/Altered by The QuiMnt)
The above mentioned bio is what is written in Shinde's current bio as well. Further, the current cover image still mentions 'Shiv Sena' as it did back in 2020.
Screenshot of Shinde's current Twitter account.
(Source: Archive/Altered by The Quint)
While the future does look uncertain, to claim that Shinde has already removed references to the party is a bit of a stretch.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MAHARASHTRA?
The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in the state – comprising the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – are staring at uncertainty with at least 30 MLAs (including the ones with Shinde) incommunicado.
The MVA government has 169 members in the Maharashtra Assembly, 25 above the 144 seat majority mark. The BJP has 106 MLAs, 38 less than required to form the government.
Although the Maharashtra BJP President Chandrakant Patil has said that Shinde has not reached out to the party to stake claim to the government or vice versa.
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