New Delhi:
The second split in Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of Shiv Sena became almost inevitable today, with six MPs writing to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla about their change if allegiance. Their merger with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is likely to be announced on June 21, sources said.
The Thackeray camp has called for a party meet at 11 am tomorrow and issued a notice to the rebel MPs, declaring that action will be taken against them if they fail to turn up.
Taking action could prove difficult — as it did in 2022 when 40 of the party’s 55 MLAs sided with Eknath Shinde and split the party.
The rebels’ defection was accepted by the Speaker and the Election Commission gave its seal of approval, bestowing the party name and election symbol on the Eknath Shinde faction.
Thackeray’s lawsuit about the split is still pending in the Supreme Court.
This time too, the move seemed properly planned, with the numbers exactly two-thirds of the party’s strength in the Lok Sabha to bypass the anti-defection law.
The MPs have already skipped one meeting on June 14, and before that, the birthday of Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday.
The rebel MPS include Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Omraje Nimbalkar, Bhausaheb Wakchaure and Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Sanjay Dina Patil.
Earlier today, Thackeray faction MPs Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant met Speaker Om Birla and urged him to go by the established rules if any MPs from the “rebel” camp come to him with any representation.
Uddhav Thackeray loyalists Sanjay Raut, Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai are camping in Delhi amid the crisis. Sanjay Raut has alleged that Rs 15 crore has been spent to “buy” each MP.
Instead of Operation Lotus – a name coined in Karnataka when Congress and Janata Dal Secular MPs resigned or crossed over to the BJP, bringing down the HD Kumaraswamy government – the unfolding events in Maharashtra have been dubbed “Operation Tiger”.
“The ruling party in the country is trying to break, manipulate, and bring all regional parties to its side because they need to pass two to three bills in the Parliament which could not be passed so far due to lack of numbers… They (BJP) will do whatever they want to get the numbers. But all this is not right for democracy,” said Sena UBT ally Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
