Two Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction on Sunday said that they will join the rival group led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Deccan Herald reported.
This came amid speculation that six of the Uddhav Sena’s nine members in the Lower House of Parliament would defect.
Besides Hingoli MP Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Omprakash Nimbalkar from Osmanabad who confirmed on Sunday that they will join the Shinde-led faction, the four others are Mumbai North-East MP Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim, Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani and Bhausaheb Wakchaure from Shirdi, the newspaper reported.
All six rebel MPs are expected to formally merge with the Shinde-led faction on Monday, India Today reported.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the act of splitting the Uddhav Sena in the Lok Sabha 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”.
Ashtikar said that he was “not upset with anyone” and that faction leader Uddhav Thackeray had supported him.
He claimed that while he had “not gone anywhere” until Thursday, when “what was being said [by Thackeray supporters] crossed limits and so much distrust was expressed, I felt there was no point in staying any longer”, he said on social...
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