These are clearly bad times for the Shiv Sena.

Coming close on the heals of an embarrassing pasting at the hands of former Sena strongman Narayan Rane in the Malwan by-polls, the Sena suffered another setback on Sunday as party executive president Raj Thackeray quit the post.

Raj's move is seen as the result of a fallout with cousin Udhav.

Earlier, Raj had sent a letter to Sena chief Bal Thackeray expressing unhappiness at Uddhav's 'style of functioning'.

A large number of workers of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena -- Shiv Sena's student wing which mostly has Raj's supporters -- gathered at his Dadar residence on Sunday to express solidarity.

Photgraph: Arun Patil