After Mamata Banerjee-led TMC seeing a split, signs of a rebellion appear to be brewing in the Shiv Sena UBT led by Uddhav Thackeray with the party urging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla not to recognise any rebel faction as the legislature party.
Shiv Sena UBT leader Arvind Sawant on Tuesday night shot off a letter to Birla pointing to the reports that a section of Sena UBT MPs may break away from the parent party and express the wish to the Speaker to support another party or bloc (read the BJP-led NDA).
The letter says, “The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) continues to be recognised as a single political party represented in the House through its duly authorised leader and whip, and that no separate recognition, status, privilege or facility be accorded to any purported faction or breakaway group claiming to represent the party; no decision be taken on any such request, if received, without first affording the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) an opportunity to place its submissions before your office. The party further reserves all rights available to it in law, including the right to invoke the provisions of the Tenth Schedule and pursue such remedies as may be necessary in relation to any conduct inconsistent with the constitutional principles referred to above.”
The letter quotes the Subhash Desai versus State of Maharashtra judgment of 2023 in detail to say that the Constitution envisages a single political party and not competing factions of that party and that the legislature party draws its existence from the political party.
It is, meanwhile, learnt that some MPs of the Sena UBT are in Delhi and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is also arriving in Delhi.
Action has shifted to Delhi with Sawant and another senior Sena UBT leader also here.
Talks of a potential rift in the Sena UBT began after five Lok Sabha MPs out of nine skipped a recent meeting Uddhav called in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, buzz in political circles is that another split in Uddhav’s camp is not ruled out after the Shiv Sena marks its 60 foundation day on June 19.
