Eknath Shinde camp takes in 6 rebel MPs, calls it 'second stage of Shiv Sena expansion'

Six MPs from Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday formally announced their move to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, ending days of high-profile political manoeuvres.

The six rebel MPs were all seen at a Shiv Sena event on Monday, alongside Deputy CM Shinde and other senior leaders from the party.

The six rebel MPs now joining the Shinde Sena are Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar (Hingoli), Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar (Dharashiv) and Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi).

Two of these MPs—Ashtikar and Nimbalkar—had already confirmed their move to the Shinde Sena a day earlier, citing fund crunches in their constituencies.

Ashtikar had further claimed that he had planned to stay with the Thackeray Sena till June 18th, when he could not do so anymore, as he had been put off by comments from the party's senior leadership.

This was seen as an apparent reference to Sanjay Raut's expletive-filled outburst against the rebel MPs in a presser that day.

This move is the second stage of the Shiv Sena expansion," Shinde asserted, declaring that the move, dubbed 'Operation Tiger', was successful.

This comes just days after the six MPs violated the party whip by not showing up at a parliamentary meeting called by Uddhav Thackeray, amid a series of high-profile moves orchestrated by Shinde and his son, Dr Shrikant Shinde.

Over the past few days, the MPs have been moved carefully from place to place by the Shinde camp—first for a meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and then to a safe place (Jaipur) where they could be protected until the move was finalised.

They were also given Y-plus security, in light of the increased threats to them from the workers of the UBT camp in their constituencies, who have stirred up protests in areas like Yavatmal, Parbhani, Beed, and Hingoli.

This has also led to strong backlash from the Thackeray camp, which has called them traitors, and has alleged that they moved for political gain.

Thackeray is now undergoing a full-fledged outreach drive in order to contain the crisis that is rapidly spiralling out of control, as his party faces an existential crisis in the Parliament with just three of its nine MPs left.