Overview
- Reports say six Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, UBT) Lok Sabha MPs declared themselves rebels on Monday and are preparing to formally join the Shinde‑led Shiv Sena, with at least one MP publicly confirming the switch.
- Named among the group are Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Omraje Nimbalkar, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Sanjay Dina Patil, according to multiple accounts.
- The MPs met Eknath Shinde and his son Shrikant in Delhi/Noida and handed a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting merger and changed parliamentary seating, and they plan a joint press conference with photos and video of those meetings.
- If six of UBT’s nine MPs act together they would meet the two‑thirds threshold in India’s anti‑defection law and could avoid disqualification; several defectors cite access to development funds for their constituencies as a motive.
- Uddhav Thackeray has called the defectors traitors, held rallies and summoned legislators to try to stop further erosion, and state leaders including Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde have framed the operation as successful, raising stakes over party identity and coalition math in Maharashtra.