Uddhav faces new defections
Six Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena MPs are understood to have signed a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday seeking merger with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The party currently has nine MPs in the Lower House of Parliament.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Shinde arrived in Delhi on Tuesday night with the letter from the rebel MPs to Om Birla. Sources said the names included Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai North East Sanjay Dina Patil, Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure (MP from Shirdi), Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav (MP from Parbhani), Nagesh Bapurao Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli MP), Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal MP) and Omprakash Rajenimbalkar (Darashiv MP). The six MPs had not turned up to attend a scheduled meeting called by party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday at his residence, Matoshree, in Mumbai.
All the MPs are set to join the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) at an event in Mumbai on Thursday, giving final shape to the speculations of ‘Operation Tiger’ in Maharashtra, they added. The move by Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs comes on the heels of the breakaway and merger of 22 Trinamool Congress legislators to the BJP-led NDA fold. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was back in Mumbai on late Wednesday evening from New Delhi to complete the process of induction of six MPs of Uddhav.
Shinde had led a rebellion against the Thackerays and went on to split the Sena in 2022 and became the CM of Maharashtra. He pulled the Uddhav-led Congress-Shiv Sena combined Maha Vikas Aghadi Government.
Against these developments, some MPs of Shiv Sena (UBT) met Lok Sabha Speaker Birla on Wednesday after holding a press conference in the national Capital. The party further issued a three-line whip to all party MPs to attend a meeting of its parliamentary party at 11 am on Thursday.
“We went to request the Speaker to respect our caveat letter. We had sent the letter by email on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) night. But we personally went and met him to tell him that, in case any other group approaches him, he should hear us first,” said Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, accompanied by colleague MPs Anil Desai and Arvind Sawant. Raut alleged that some Maharashtra MPs were being offered “Rs 50 crore” to switch sides.
“Under the law, one cannot simply merge with a party even if they have the support of two-thirds of the MPs. Only the original party can merge if a group has the required two-thirds strength,” Desai said. He added that the Lok Sabha Speaker assured them that he would look into every aspect of the law before taking any decision.
Apart from Sawant and Desai, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Rajabhau Waje has announced that his loyalty remains to the Thackeray family. Raut has been camping in Delhi ever since there were talks of a split of the party in the fashion of Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.
