At Rane’s party, only 9 MLAs

At the meeting in Rane’s residence, a resolution was also passed to file a petition with the Speaker against the rest who failed to turn up. Rane, who is still officially the SSLP chief, said that a whip had been issued to all the 63 MLAs to remain present on the opening day of the session.

Rane said 10 MLAs—including himself—attended the meeting today, while two more had sent faxes to him saying that they were not able to attend due to ill-health. ‘‘The 26 other MLAs, who are confined in a hotel by the Shiv Sena, have telephoned me to say that they would join me as soon as they are released,’’ he said.

The Konkan strongman claimed that he was being supported even by corporators from Mumbai. After he resigned from the party on Sunday and was sacked by Sena chief Bal Thackeray the following day, 41 MLAs had attended a meeting presided over by Uddhav Thackeray. The number rose to 52 when the Sena made a representation to the Speaker.

The MLAs who attended the meeting called by Rane today were Vinayak Nimhan, Manik Kokate, Prakash Bharsakhale, Shyam Sawant, Shankar Kambli, Ganpat Kadam, Subash Bane, Kalidas Kolambkar and Vijay Vadattiwar.

Speaker Kupekar preferred not to comment on the current turn of events. ‘‘Rane was supposed to hand over a letter of disqualification of his MLAs today. But I have not received any such letter. I cannot comment now,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Rane is likely to meet Margaret Alva, All-India Congress General Secretary, who will be in Mumbai on Saturday.