Amid talks of a split and rebellion in Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra, the party has called a meeting of its parliamentary committee in Delhi on Thursday. According to news agency PTI, the party has issued a whip for all its MPs, making it mandatory to attend the meeting. The party can initiate disqualification action against those MPs who do not attend the meeting. The party had issued a similar whip during the Eknath Shinde-led rebellion in 2022, which involved 39 MLAs; Disqualification proceedings were then initiated against him.
There is speculation that 6 to 7 out of the nine Lok Sabha MPs from the Uddhav faction may join the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. According to reports, Uddhav and other party leaders are trying to contact these MPs, but the conversation has not taken place. This entire sequence of events has been named ‘Operation Tiger’. The tiger is considered a symbol of Shiv Sena’s politics and the legacy of Balasaheb Thackeray. Uddhav faction leader Sanjay Raut has said that if ‘Operation Tiger’ is implemented, the UBT faction will launch ‘Operation Wolf’.
**Raut claims that MPs have been offered ₹50 crore to switch parties**
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has claimed that MPs have been offered ₹50 crore to switch parties. Responding to TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s X (Twitter) post, Raut wrote, “The minimum support price for an MP is ₹50 crore. ₹15 crore is just an advance.” Earlier, Mahua Moitra had also made a sarcastic comment: “Just ₹15 crore? Why are they going so cheap? In our case, the offer was ₹4 crore as advance and ₹1 crore per month for the rest of the tenure.” Uddhav faction MPs are likely to meet the Speaker today
According to media reports, 6 to 7 MPs from the Uddhav faction are likely to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla today. He is also likely to hold a press conference later. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) has written a letter to the Speaker requesting that no rebel faction of the party be recognized in Parliament. The party argued that under the existing constitutional provisions, a split in a political party is no longer legally valid.
Uddhav on split in party: Those who want to go, let them go
Referring to the split in Shiv Sena in 2022, Uddhav said, “I knew about the rebellion at that time too, but I did not force anyone.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP met a minister
Uddhav Thackeray had called a meeting of Lok Sabha MPs on June 14. Eight out of nine MPs attended the meeting. Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, Rajabhau Waje and Sanjay Patil were present in person, while Om Prakash Raje Nimbalkar, Bhausaheb Wakchore, Nagesh Bapurao Patil Ashtikar and Sanjay Deshmukh joined online. MP Sanjay Deshmukh could not attend the meeting due to family reasons; However, he met Union Minister Pratap Rao Jadhav in Delhi on June 15. Commenting on the meeting, Raut said that all the party MPs are united and a misleading picture is being presented about the meeting.
There was a split in Shiv Sena four years ago
On June 20, 2022, 40 out of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs in Maharashtra supported Eknath Shinde. Uddhav was the Chief Minister at that time. The Governor had asked him to conduct a floor test. Uddhav went to the Supreme Court, but when the court did not stay the floor test, he resigned. Shinde became the Chief Minister on 30 June 2022 with the support of BJP. Following this, both the groups approached the Supreme Court demanding disqualification of each other’s MLAs. The court left the decision to Speaker Rahul Narvekar. On January 10, 2023, the Speaker said that at the time of the rebellion, the Shinde faction had 37 [विधायक] Was… He was an MLA; Therefore, this is the real Shiv Sena. The Speaker rejected the petitions to disqualify the MLAs and did not cancel their membership. Meanwhile, the Election Commission allotted Shiv Sena’s election symbol ‘bow-arrow’ to the Shinde faction.
