Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said that he is resigning from the CM in a LIVE broadcast.

“I am also quitting as member of Legislative Council,” Thackeray said in a webcast.

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This announcement, by the chief minister, come minutes after the Supreme Court refused to stay Maharashtra Governor’s direction to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government to take a floor test in the Assembly on Thursday.

“I had come (to power) in an unexpected manner and I am going out in a similar fashion. I am not going away forever, I will be here, and I will once again sit in Shiv Sena Bhawan. I will gather all my people. I am resigning as the CM and as an MLC,” Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray.

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Thackeray has been reduced to a minority in the Shiv Sena, which was founded by his father Bal Thackeray. Earlier it was reported that the Shiv Sena chief was stopped short of resigning twice, persuaded by ally Sharad Pawar to change his mind and fight back.

In the past week, close to 40 MLAs have joined Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde, and two appeals from Thackeray have failed to bring any of them around.

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Eknath Shinde claims he has the support of nearly 50 MLAs, some 40 of them from the Shiv Sena. The majority mark currently stands at 144 in the 287-member assembly. The ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, or NCP, has 152 MLAs.