Friday, July 8 2005 14:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Beleaguered former Maharashtra Chief Minister and expelled Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane, in his capacity as Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, today (July 8, 2005) held a meeting of party legislators, which was attended by nine MLAs.

Nine MLAs are attending the meeting at his official residence in South Mumbai, a Rane aide said. Police have made tight security arrangements at the venue, which is full of hundreds of Rane supporters.

Rane and Vinayak Nimhan as the chief whip of the party approved by the Babasaheb Kupekar have called the meeting. Rane had yesterday (July 7, 2005) warned the MLAs that those not attending the meeting would loose their assembly membership.

Earlier, on July three 2005, Rane had claimed support of 42 of the 63 MLAs in the lower house.

"Besides the 22 legislators, who were with me when the Sena chief was addressing the party's meeting at Bandra, 20 legislators who were present at the meeting phoned me after it was over and expressed their support," he had said then.

However, yesterday the Shiv Sena had paraded 52 MLAs led by newly elected legislative party leader Ramdas Kadam in front of Kupekar at Vidhan Bhavan.

They had also submitted a copy of the resolution passed by the party that included Rane's expulsion and appointment of Kadam as the new legislative party leader.

Rane too had met the Speaker yesterday saying his expulsion was illegal and described the meeting of 52 legislators convened at suburban Bandra by party executive president Uddhav Thackeray as illegal.