: Thursday, June 18, 2026 8:46 PM
Mumbai The political picture of Maharashtra has once again changed completely due to a very secret and well-planned defection named ‘Operation Tiger’. The operation, planned by political strategists from Maharashtra, successfully led to a split in the Shiv Sena (UBT) parliamentary faction, leaving Uddhav Thackeray with only three loyal Lok Sabha MPs out of nine. Despite a strict whip being issued by the party to attend an important parliamentary party meeting in Delhi on Thursday, six MPs rebelled and did not attend the meeting.
Sources in the Shinde faction said that to avoid any doubt in the Uddhav Thackeray led faction, these six rebel MPs used completely different routes and modes of transport from different places to reach the national capital.
On June 16, at 1:30 am, rebel Shiv Sena-UBT MP Nagesh Patil Ashtikar reached Delhi via flight from Nanded.
The same day in the afternoon, Sanjay Deshmukh and Sanjay Bandhu Jadhav arrived from Nanded in separate flights. In the evening Bhausaheb Wakchore reached Delhi from Hyderabad via private jet. Sanjay Dina Patil arrived in the night with Minister Pratap Sarnaik.
At 3 am on June 17, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reached Delhi via the Mumbai-Jaipur route, and at 4:30 am Omprakashraje Nimbalkar reached Delhi via Pune. All six MPs were quietly accommodated in a five-star hotel in Delhi, which became their base of operations.
The Shiv Sena-UBT split was formalized in frequent and tightly scheduled meetings with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
On Wednesday morning at 7 am, rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Omprakashraje Nimbalkar met Speaker Om Birla alone to prepare the ground. At 10:20 am the same day, the remaining five MPs joined Nimbalkar and submitted a signed, official resolution.
In their formal proposal submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker, the six MPs said that Shiv Sena (UBT) has deviated significantly from its core ideological base. He alleged that senior party leaders were actively trying to merge the party with the Congress. He said that they have decided to form a separate group together. Also, he requested to officially join Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and sought to change his seating arrangement in the Lok Sabha Chamber to reflect this change. The turning point came late on the night of 17 June.
Uddhav Thackeray faction’s parliamentary leader Arvind Sawant had called a ‘litmus test’ meeting the next day to test the loyalty of the MPs.
To prevent any counter-talk or change of mind, Shrikant Shinde (son of Shiv Sena MP and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde), who is handling the ground work in Delhi, organized an important late night conference call between Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and a group of six MPs.
During the call, specific concerns related to high-profile MPs like Omprakashraje Nimbalkar (Dharashiv) and Sanjay Dina Patil (North-East Mumbai) were addressed.
Shrikant Shinde gave a firm assurance and said, “Shiv Sena will stand with you with full strength.”
Following the call, and to ensure that the rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs remained completely out of the reach of Uddhav Thackeray’s messengers, the six MPs were quietly moved from a Delhi hotel to a safe place in Rajasthan’s Jaipur on Thursday morning.
Soon after submitting their letters, the rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs moved to different places across the country to remain less in the news.
Nagesh Patil Ashtikar went to Chennai and then to Tirupati for darshan; Bhausaheb Waghchore went to Varanasi; Sanjay Deshmukh and Sanjay Jadhav went to Ayodhya; Sanjay Patil returned to Mumbai, while Omprakash Raje returned to Pune.
Due to the defection of six out of nine Lok Sabha MPs, the Shinde faction has a clear two-thirds majority in the parliamentary party, thereby strengthening the legal position in their favor under anti-defection laws (Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution).
Angered by the disobedience of the party whip (order), the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction has announced plans to meet Speaker Om Birla and strongly demand the immediate disqualification of those six members. Sources in Shinde camp say that he is taking steps very thoughtfully.
No joint photos will be released or a formal merger announced for the next 48 hours as legal teams investigate possible counter-moves from the opposition.
A formal one-on-one meeting between Eknath Shinde and the six MPs is scheduled for June 20, in which the official paperwork and reasons for their separation will be made public.
Meanwhile, police security has been significantly beefed up outside the residences of all six rebel MPs in Maharashtra in view of the fear of political protest at the local level following Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut’s sharp public warnings.
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Web Title-Split in Shiv Sena (UBT): Six rebel MPs met the Shinde faction in Delhi; Here’s how the plan was executed.
