Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday removed newly-inducted Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde from the post of a “party leader”, PTI reported. Thackeray accused Shinde of being involved in “anti-party activities”.

“In exercise of powers vested in me as Shiv Sena party president, I remove you from the post of Shiv Sena leader in the party organisation,” Thackeray wrote in a letter to the rebel leader.

Shinde has voluntarily given up the membership of the party, Thackeray added in the letter.

The letter is dated June 30, the day Shinde took oath as chief minister of Maharashtra. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy chief minister the same day, as the political crisis in the state drew to a close on Thursday after more than a week.

On June 21, Shinde and a group of other Shiv Sena MLAs moved to Surat from Mumbai, and then flew to Guwahati. The strength of the rebel group increased over the last week as a total of 39 Shiv Sena MLAs, and some Independent legislators went to the Assam capital.

The group demanded that Thackeray sever ties with the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress and walk out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. Thackeray did not relent and neither did the rebel group, and the pitched battle culminated with the Maharashtra governor asking Thackeray to prove his majority on the floor of the state Assembly.

However, Thackeray resigned as the chief minister on Wednesday ahead of the floor test. This came after the Supreme Court rejected the Shiv Sena’s plea against the governor’s decision asking the Thackeray-led government to face a floor test to prove its majority.