Mumbai, July 4: The first fallout of Narayan Rane’s expulsion is expected to be felt where it hurts the Shiv Sena most.

All Sena shakhas in Sindhudurg, a Konkan coast district regarded as the party’s strongest bastion, will raise a banner of revolt against the leadership by stopping to display the official symbol of bow and arrow, a leader said today.

“Rane’s expulsion from the Shiv Sena is an insult to the self-esteem of loyal Shiv Sainiks in Sindhudurg district. Sena shakhas all over the district would go with Rane,” the party’s district chief, Sanjay Padate, said. Sindhudurg has 800 shakhas.

Two days before Rane was shown the door, Padate had led a delegation of Sindhudurg office-bearers to Matoshree, Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s residence, and met his son and party executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

Uddhav had assured them that he would iron out differences with Rane, who owes his political journey from an income-tax clerk to chief minister to his fierce loyalty to Thackeray. “He said he would personally sit down with Rane,” Padate said on telephone from Kankavli.

But the promise remained unfulfilled as the Sena boss announced Rane’s expulsion yesterday afternoon and said a new leader of Opposition would replace him soon.

Later that evening, Rane spewed venom in public, blaming Uddhav’s style of functioning for the Sena’s Lok Sabha and Assembly poll debacle.

Led by Rane, the party’s Sindhudurg unit has been fighting a fierce battle with the equally aggressive Nationalist Congress Party, which has been trying to make inroads into this Sena bastion for the last few years.

Under Rane’s leadership, the Sena had complete hold over Sindhudurg politics. “We have three MLAs. We control all eight panchayat samitis. In the zilla parishad, the Sena has 30 members out of the total 50. We also control 80 per cent of the gram panchayats,” said Tatya Kudalkar, the Kudal taluka chief.

“But despite this, Sindhudurg never got its due share of development when Manohar Joshi was chief minister. When Rane took over, he tried his best in the eight months that he got as CM,” he added.

Out of the Sena he may be, but Rane today went about his job as leader of the Opposition. He named Vinayak Nimhan, an MLA from Shivaji Nagar, the party’s new chief whip in the Assembly ahead of its monsoon session beginning July 11. Rane is scheduled to step down as leader of the Opposition on the first day of the session.

Rane is the fourth prominent Sena leader to leave the party in recent years. Chhagan Bhujbal had staged the first rebellion by taking legislators with him to join the Congress in 1991. Ganesh Naik joined the NCP two years ago. Sena Rajya Sabha MP and Uddhav’s closest associate Sanjay Nirupam was next. He switched over to the Congress.