Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faces fresh split scare as MPs reach Delhi, Eknath Shinde follows

Amid growing speculation about a group of MPs of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) planning to break away, several of them reached Delhi on Tuesday while Deputy Chief Minister and Sena leader Eknath Shinde left for the national Capital late in the night, sources said. In response, MP Arvind Sawant, on behalf of the Sena (UBT), has written to Speaker Om Birla, urging him not to recognise any breakaway group of the party’s MPs.

This comes after days of a strong buzz about the breakaway group forming in the Sena (UBT)’s parliamentary party and just a week before the fourth anniversary of Shinde’s rebellion that split the Sena.

Sources in Shinde’s party claimed that as many as seven of the Sena (UBT)’s nine MPs were planning to split, with Sawant and Anil Desai the only two likely to stay back with Uddhav. Sources in the Sena said four of the rebel MPs were in Delhi and likely to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday morning. They are expected to submit a letter urging the Speaker to recognise them as a separate bloc in the House.

However, Mumbai South Central MP Sanjay Dina Patil and Nashik MP Rajabhau Waje told The Indian Express that they continue to stand firmly with Uddhav and remain in their constituencies. Osmanabad MP Omraje Nimbalkar is learnt to be in Pune and busy through the day with court proceedings in the 2006 case of the murder of his cousin and Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar. Sena (UBT) MPs Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Babasaheb Wackchaure, and Nagesh Ashtikar remained out of reach till late in the night.

Responding to the speculation, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut alleged in a post on X, “Money, money… all about money! It is shocking and disgusting that attempts are being made to buy Members of Parliament from Maharashtra.”

Earlier in the day, Raut had dismissed speculation about “Operation Tiger”, the name given to the alleged attempt to break his party’s Lok Sabha wing, saying, “Ours is a cadre-based party. We have no information about anyone forming a separate group. I can guarantee that the party and its MPs are intact and they have also taken oath in front of Uddhav ji to remain firm with the party.”

The Rajya Sabha MP, who has been in Delhi since Monday along with Desai, added, “This is a lie (speculation about a split). We have no such information. A few days ago, all these MPs took part in a meeting called by Uddhav Thackeray ji and expressed faith in his leadership. Some of them even swore by their loved ones while pledging support to Uddhav ji.”

In his letter to the Speaker, Sawant said that after the 2003 amendment to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the legal provision for a “split” no longer exists and the authority of MPs flows from the parent political party and not an independent legislature party.

Even a two-thirds breakaway cannot claim protection unless the original political party itself formally merges, Sawant wrote, urging the Speaker not to recognise any such breakaway faction. He requested that “no separate recognition, status, privilege or facility be accorded to any purported faction or breakaway group claiming to represent the party”.

“The judgment (of the Supreme Court in 2023 in the Subhash Desai case) unequivocally affirms the primacy of the political party over the legislature party. The legislature party does not possess an independent source of authority divorced from the political party,” he wrote.

The developments come two days after Thackeray convened a meeting of all nine Lok Sabha MPs of his party at his Mumbai home, Matoshree, on Sunday to scotch rumours of a split. However, only four turned up in person, intensifying the speculation about a split in yet another Opposition party after the Trinamool Congress (TMC). At the time, the party tried to play down the absence of the others, saying four had joined the meeting virtually while Jadhav spoke to Uddhav over the phone.

The talk of a split gained further momentum on Monday after Deshmukh met Union minister Prataprao Jadhav in Delhi. However, both of them denied any political angle, saying the meeting was related to “constituency work”.