After ‘Operation Tiger’, why Shiv Sena chorus grows for Shrikant Shinde elevation

Days after six rebel Lok Sabha MPs of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) crossed over to the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, several Shiv Sena leaders have intensified their pitch for a “bigger role” for party MP and Shinde’s son, Dr Shrikant Shinde.

The development marks the first time since June 2022, when Shinde split the then Uddhav-led undivided Shiv Sena, that senior Sena leaders have openly called for a major organisational role for Shrikant.

The first such demand came during a Shinde Sena event in Mumbai on June 19, held to mark the Sena’s 60th foundation day, where senior party leader Ramdas Kadam said Shrikant should be appointed the party’s national general secretary and be given the charge of its youth wing Yuva Sena. Kadam has been one of the Sena’s senior-most leaders since the party founder Bal Thackeray period.

Kadam highlighted Shrikant’s role in executing what the party calls the “Operation Tiger”, the exercise which culminated in six Sena (UBT) MPs formally joining the Shinde Sena on June 22. The Uddhav Sena has challenged this “merger” before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, holding that it violated the 10th Schedule or anti-defection law.

Addressing the Shinde Sena event, Kadam said, “Shiv Sena has completed 60 years and I have seen 57 of those years. After Balasaheb Thackeray, Eknath Shinde worked to save Shiv Sena. Following the same path, Shrikant Shinde is now working to expand the party. He has played a major role in Operation Tiger.”

In his speech, Shinde said party leaders and Shiv Sainiks should decide whether Shrikant should be given a bigger role, claiming that the latter had earlier refused both an organisational responsibility and an opportunity to become a Union Minister in 2024.

After the BJP-led NDA won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to return to power, there was speculation that Shrikant could be inducted into the Narendra Modi Cabinet. Instead, the Shinde Sena nominated Buldhana MP Prataprao Jadhav as a Minister of State in the Union ministry.

‘Op Tiger’ factor

The 39-year-old orthopaedic surgeon-turned-politician, Shrikant, had made his electoral debut in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from the Kalyan seat as a Shiv Sena candidate, which he won by over 2.5 lakh votes. He went on to win from his constituency in 2019 and 2024 by huge margins.

Shrikant started getting more active in his party affairs following the June 2022 Sena split. After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he was elected as the leader of the Shinde Sena Parliamentary Party, handling the party’s coordination with the BJP in Delhi.

However, senior Sena leaders had still refrained from openly backing a larger role for Shrikant, whether in the organisation or government, which changed in recent days with senior leaders, including minister Gulabrao Patil, hailing his leadership for undertaking the party’s “expansion”.

Since the Operation Tiger, Sena leaders have credited Shrikant with playing a “central role” in bringing the six Sena (UBT) MPs into the party fold, thereby increasing its Lok Sabha tally from six to 13, which is now expected to strengthen Shinde’s position in future negotiations with the BJP over sharing power or tickets.

Just a few days before the six Uddhav Sena MPs – Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh, Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Bhausaheb Wakchaure – formally switched sides, Shrikant himself said that some “major political development” was round the corner.

At the joint press conference held jointly by the rebel MPs along with Eknath Shinde, Sena leaders again underlined Shrikant’s role in ensuring the Operation Tiger’s success.

Such a public projection of Shrikant by the Shinde Sena leaders has come amid a buzz that a Union Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards in the coming days. There are talks in state political circles that the Shinde Sena may bargain for another berth in the Union ministry for which Shrikant could be a contender.

Sena transitions

There had been similar precedents of power transition in the undivided Shiv Sena in the past.

Just before the party founder Bal Thackeray had named his son Uddhav as the Sena executive president in 2003, senior party leaders had begun pressing for a key organisational role for him.

Later, Uddhav’s son Aaditya Thackeray’s elevation in the Sena followed a similar trajectory, with party leaders projecting him as its “gen-next” face before he was appointed the Yuva Sena chief.

After raising a banner of revolt against Uddhav in 2022, the Shinde camp kept their guns trained on him for allegedly reducing the Sena to “one family-centred party”.

This explains why Shinde, while speaking at the June 19 function, said, “Shrikant himself said ordinary Shiv Sainiks should move ahead first.” He, however, then added that “Just because someone is the son of an MLA or Chief Minister does not mean opportunities come automatically to him. If he has worked and shown capability, injustice will not be done to him.”