The Shiv Sena Monday sacked Mohan Rawale, its senior leader and five-time Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai, for dissidence, a party spokesperson said.
The expulsion was ordered shortly after Rawale addressed a press conference in which he launched a no-holds-barred attack on the party leadership and alleged that Shiv Sena was becoming "a party of touts".
The developments came just four days after stern Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray made it clear that all those who did not like his leadership were "free to leave the party".