Only three of the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s nine Lok Sabha MPs attended the party’s parliamentary meeting in Delhi on Thursday, strengthening speculation that the remaining six were likely to defect to BJP ally Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
These six MPs from Uddhav Thackeray’s party are believed to have, in a virtual rerun of the Trinamool Congress revolt, written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday seeking a merger with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. There is, however, no official confirmation.
A visibly angry Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha member from the Sena (UBT), threatened action to disqualify the six who skipped the meeting, held at the party’s office in the old Parliament building. The party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha had issued a three-line whip directing all MPs to attend the meeting.
“They will be issued show-cause notices and asked to respond within seven days,” Raut said. The party will then “proceed in the direction of seeking their disqualification”.
The anti-defection law, however, does not provide for a member’s disqualification for disobeying a whip to attend a parliamentary party meeting. Members risk disqualification if they, without prior permission, vote or abstain from voting in the House in a manner contrary to their party’s whip.
Raut denied claims that the six truant MPs had met the Speaker to seek a merger with the Shiv Sena of deputy chief minister Shinde, but appeared to acknowledge the threat of defection by them.
“Let them show photographs of their meeting. They are traitors, dishonest and deceptive people,” he said.
Raut warned: “It’s the party and the workers who made them MPs. Those very workers are now on the streets. It will become difficult for them to stay at home. I dare them to go to their constituencies... they will have to take the Indian Army along.”
After Raut’s warning, the BJP-led Maharashtra government directed the police to provide the six MPs with Y+ security.
Raut claimed these six MPs were not in Delhi and suggested they may have been kidnapped, implying foul play by the ruling alliance.
Asked whether his party would move court, Raut broadened his attack to take in the judiciary and the Election Commission.
“We shall see. The Supreme Court is also ‘gunehgar’ (culpable) for what is happening. The Supreme Court and the Election Commission are primarily responsible for the way democracy is being torn to shreds in the country,” he said.
Uddhav’s party has challenged the Election Commission’s decision to grant the foundational name “Shiv Sena” and bow-and-arrow symbol to Shinde’s faction after the original Shiv Sena split in June 2022. The matter is pending before a constitution bench of the Supreme Court.
The anti-defection law allows one party to merge with another only if at least two-thirds of the first party’s lawmakers agree to the move. One key legal question before the Supreme Court is whether such a merger can be recognised solely on the basis of (two-thirds) support within the legislature party or whether it must also involve the original political party.
MPs in resort
As most of the six truant Sena (UBT) MPs remained incommunicado, reports on Thursday claimed that four of them had been put up at a resort in Makrana in BJP-ruled Rajasthan.
Some news channels flashed images of the resort hours after Raut alleged in Delhi that the six MPs were being hidden in a Rajasthan resort.
Sources said only four of the six had met the Speaker in Delhi on Wednesday and submitted the letter, which purportedly carried the signatures of all six.
These four MPs had been flown from Maharashtra to Delhi in a chartered aircraft late on Tuesday night and accommodated at a Noida hotel, the sources added.
The two MPs who did not join the delegation are Dharashiv MP Omprakash Rajenimbalkar and Mumbai North-East MP Sanjay Dina Patil. Reports suggested that both were ready to defect but faced certain issues.
While Patil has gone into hiding, Rajenimbalkar told reporters he would clarify his stand only after the court trying the murder of his father, a former Congress leader, delivered its verdict on Saturday.
Sources in the Sena (UBT) claimed that Rajenimbalkar might change his mind if a member of the ruling alliance was pronounced guilty.
Padamsingh Patil, one of the nine accused, is a former NCP minister and brother of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar. Sunetra, wife of the late Ajit Pawar, heads the NCP, a BJP ally.
The court was to deliver the verdict on Tuesday but postponed it till Saturday.