Several supporters of the Sena rebels won seats in last fortnight's Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in the State, but both the Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party suffered humiliating defeats.

Talking to journalists after his arrival from Mumbai on Thursday morning, Naik said his organisation was still sorting out technical hitches for the formation of a new political party to counter the Sena and BJP in the State. ``As soon as this is done, we will make the announcement,'' he said.

Naik was expelled from the Cabinet after he revolted against Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray over the latter's ``meddling in party affairs in Navi Mumbai'', a stronghold of the Sena rebel.

Two ministers of the coalition government, GulabraoGawande and Suresh Navle, both Sena leaders from rural Maharashtra, were also dropped from the Cabinet when they joined hands with Naik.

Technically, the Sena rebels continue to be party legislators, as they have not resigned their House membership so far. The Sena leadership too has avoided expelling them from the party for fear of losing numerical superiority in the Assembly. Naik parried questions on whether he and his rebel colleagues would resign their House membership as a prelude to the formation of a new party. ``We are yet to make up our minds on this'', he said. On his plans for a tie-up with the Congress and other parties, he said, ``Please wait and watch'', he said.

Naik also predicted that the Sena-BJP alliance would not return to power in the next State elections, scheduled for March 2000.