Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leaders Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday and argued that a group of rebel MPs, even if it constitutes two-thirds of the party’s legislature wing, cannot merge with another party on its own without an approval from the original party, The Times of India reported.
The meeting followed representations made by the Uddhav Sena after six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs joined the faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday.
Sawant and Desai said that they urged the speaker to ensure that the provisions of the Constitution’s Tenth Schedule, which details the anti-defection law, are followed before any decision is taken, the newspaper reported.
Desai told reporters after the meeting that only a political party can decide to merge with another and that such a decision is to be approved by the required number of legislators, PTI reported.
“We told him [Birla] we are the original party, and that Shiv Sena (UBT) and its chief Uddhav Thackeray haven’t decided to merge with any party, and there is no such plan in the future,” The Times of India quoted Desai as saying.
Desai added that the delegation had submitted a letter from Thackeray to the speaker and expressed confidence that a “custodian of Parliament will ensure justice is done”.
Sawant said that he had written to the speaker twice, first on June 18 to urge him to uphold constitutional provisions if any MP sought to join another party, and later to request that no decision be taken without hearing Uddhav Sena, PTI reported.
He added that when he and Desai asked whether the rebel MPs had submitted any representation, Birla told them that no letter had been received.
Birla is expected to decide the matter of the latest defection before the Monsoon Session of Parliament begins in the second half of July, The Times of India reported.
The MPs who have switched sides on Monday are Hingoli MP Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Omprakash Nimbalkar from Osmanabad, Mumbai North-East MP Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim, Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani and Bhausaheb Wakchaure from Shirdi.
The defections have reduced the Uddhav Sena’s strength in the Lok Sabha to three MPs and increased the Shinde faction’s tally to 13.
On Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the act of splitting the Uddhav Sena’s Lok Sabha MPs as an “operation” and said that it had been successful.
Shinde said that “we don’t leave operations incomplete, we complete what we take up”.
Crisis in the Uddhav Sena
On June 18, the six rebel MPs had skipped a meeting of the party’s parliamentary group. The meeting was held a day after the faction alleged that its MPs were being offered Rs 15 crore each to join the Shinde Sena.
It was attended by the other three Lok Sabha MPs of the faction and Raut.
The following day, the Uddhav Sena initiated disciplinary action against the six MPs.
The Shiv Sena had split in June 2022 after Shinde and 39 MLAs backing him rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government that also comprised the undivided Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
After more than a week of political drama, Shinde had been sworn in as the chief minister with the backing of the BJP. He became the deputy chief minister after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance comprising the Shinde Sena, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP, retained power in the 2024 Assembly elections.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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