Amit Shah on Saturday declared "there is only one Shiv Sena now", effectively dismissing the existence of Uddhav Thackeray’s faction amid unconfirmed reports that six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs were ready to defect to Eknath Shinde’s party.
The Union home minister’s comments came as he began a two-day visit to Maharashtra that has fuelled speculation about possible defections also from Sharad Pawar’s NCP(SP), which has eight Lok Sabha MPs.
Maharashtra has been abuzz about a purported “Operation Tiger” by the NDA to engineer defections from Opposition parties to bolster its parliamentary majority.
“Pehle Shindeji ke pichhe Shiv Sena Shinde goot kehna padta tha. Ab koi goot bacha nahi hai, ek hi Shiv Sena ho gayi hai,” a smiling Shah said at a rally in Kolhapur after inaugurating the Ambabai temple development and beautification project.
A translation: “Earlier, one had to refer to Shindeji’s party as the ‘Shiv Sena, Shinde faction’. Now, no separate faction remains; there is only one Shiv Sena.”
Shinde, who was also on the dais, acknowledged the endorsement with folded hands.
Six MPs from Uddhav’s Shiv Sena (UBT) are believed to have written to Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday seeking a merger with deputy chief minister Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
On Thursday, the six skipped a parliamentary party meeting called by the Sena (UBT) in Delhi, prompting party senior and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut to call them “traitors” and serve them with show-cause notices.
Shah’s Maharashtra visit also coincides with the pronouncement of the verdict in a high-profile murder case that can potentially complicate the reported defection plan involving the six MPs.
Pawanraje Nimbalkar, Congress leader and father of Dharashiv Sena (UBT) MP Omraje Nimbalkar — one of the six purported rebels — was murdered in 2006.
On Saturday, a special CBI court in Mumbai acquitted all nine accused, including former Maharashtra minister and one-time NCP parliamentarian Padamsinh Patil, the brother of deputy chief minister and NCP leader Sunetra Pawar, a BJP ally.
Omraje had said he would decide on his political future only after the court delivered its verdict, indicating he believed the accused were guilty and that he would defect and join the NDA only if they were convicted.
The NDA cannot afford a rethink by Omraje since it needs six Sena (UBT) MPs to defect together to meet the two-thirds threshold that the presiding officers of legislatures across the country are using to validate defections. Shinde, therefore, rushed to announce that the CBI would challenge the verdict in the high court. “It is very unfortunate that the CBI court has acquitted the accused in this brutal murder case,” Shinde told ANI.
“Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and I spoke to Union home minister Amit Shah, who assured us that the CBI will appeal against the verdict in the high court.”
Omraje kept his cards close to his chest. “I will clarify my political stand within the next two days after consulting people in my constituency,”he told reporters after the court verdict.
He also made it clear he would not criticise Uddhav. “Regardless of my political decision, I have never spoken against Uddhav Thackeray or Aditya Thackeray. Whatever decision I take in the future, I will not criticise anyone,”he said.
Members of the Shinde camp interpreted this as a sign that Omraje was prepared to switch sides.
Shinde’s announcement that the CBI would appeal against the acquittals prompted AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi to accuse the government of using investigative agencies to facilitate defections.
In a post on X, Owaisi alleged that the Centre had not appealed acquittals in several high-profile cases, including the Babri Masjid demolition and the Mecca Masjid and Ajmer blasts. He claimed the decision to challenge the Nimbalkar verdict was driven by political considerations rather than the pursuit of justice.
The original Shiv Sena had split in June 2022 when Shinde broke away with the majority of the party’s MLAs and joined the NDA, toppling Uddhav’s coalition government with the Congress and the NCP.