Six of Shiv Sena (UBT)'s nine Lok Sabha MPs boycotted their party's parliamentary meeting on Thursday, signaling an imminent formal crossover to the ruling Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. According to reports from Business Standard, only Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, Rajabhau Waje, and Sanjay Raut (the party's lone Rajya Sabha MP) attended the meeting, while the remaining six MPs - Nagesh Aashtikar, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar, and Bhausaheb Wakchaure - stayed away. The boycott all but confirmed a split in the party's parliamentary ranks.
Following the meeting, Sawant announced that show-cause notices would be issued to the six absent MPs for violating the party whip. As reported by Business Standard, Sawant stated that the MPs would be given seven days to respond and if they fail to do so, the party would write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking their disqualification. Sanjay Raut confirmed that the MPs' absence would be considered a violation of the party whip, with legal action being initiated to disqualify them as lawmakers.
According to sources cited by Business Standard, all six dissident MPs have signed a letter seeking a merger with the Shinde-led Sena and submitted it to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. However, the process is not yet complete as the speaker's office is understood to require the physical appearance of some of the MPs for verification, which is expected to happen in the coming days. The verification of signatures is currently underway, sources added. Six Shiv Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha members have moved towards the NDA, with the MPs alleging a planned merger with Congress and seeking to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction.
As reported by Business Standard, Shiv Sena (UBT) has nine MPs in the Lok Sabha and at least six will have to switch sides together to escape disqualification under the anti-defection law. Sawant, Desai, and Raut met Birla on Wednesday and urged him to guard against any unlawful defection. Desai clarified that under the law, one cannot simply merge with a party even if they have the support of two-thirds of the MPs, stating that only the original party can merge if a group has the required two-thirds strength.
The six absent MPs represent crucial political assets for Shiv Sena (UBT), having played pivotal roles in the party's 2024 Lok Sabha performance. Sanjay Jadhav (56, three-term MP from Parbhani) is widely regarded as a loyalist and long-time supporter of the Thackeray family. Bhausaheb Wakchaure (74, second-term MP from Shirdi) returned to the Uddhav-led Sena in August 2023 after defeating the Shinde Sena's sitting MP in 2024. Sanjay Dina Patil (57, second-term MP from Mumbai North East) has been among the party leaders who have strongly denied reports of any move against Uddhav Thackeray. Nagesh Patil Ashtikar (49, first-time MP from Hingoli) defeated the Shinde Sena by more than one lakh votes in 2024, while Omraje Nimbalkar (42, second-term MP from Osmanabad) has long been considered close to Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray.
