In a setback for the Shiv Sena (UBT), only three of its nine Lok Sabha MPs attended a key party meeting convened after the issuance of a whip.
Under the Anti-Defection Law, elected representatives are bound by party whips.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Desai said the party would issue show-cause notices to the six absent MPs.
Desai, along with Arvind Sawant and another party MP, attended the meeting. However, Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav (Parbhani), Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure (Shirdi), Nagesh Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli), Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim) and Om Prakash Rajenimbalkar (Dharashiv) did not attend.
The six MPs, who constitute two-thirds of the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Lok Sabha strength, have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition of their merger with the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, which is part of the BJP-led NDA.
In their four-page letter to the Speaker, the MPs said they feared that Uddhav Thackeray could align with the Congress, which they claimed would amount to a departure from the ideology of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
The letter states that the rebel MPs have “no faith” in the current leadership of the party. They also cited remarks attributed to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut regarding opposition unity as one of the reasons for their decision.
The rebel MPs, who have shifted allegiance to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, maintain that they have merged with the original Shiv Sena and are not functioning as a separate group. They argue that since they constitute two-thirds of the parliamentary party’s strength, they are protected from disqualification under the provisions of the Anti-Defection Law relating to mergers.
