'Operation Tiger Successful': 6 Rebel UBT MPs Formally Cross Over To Shinde Sena

Six Members of Parliament from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) formally joined Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena on Monday, with Shinde declaring the inductions complete and calling the development the second phase of the 2022 rebellion that ended Thackeray’s government in Maharashtra.

Addressing a gathering with all six MPs standing alongside him, Shinde said: “Today, there are six tigers present here.” He quipped that three of the six MPs share the first name Sanjay, calling it “triple Sanjay power.”

“We have hit a sixer now,” Shinde said, drawing on the cricket metaphor to describe the six-MP induction. He said the original 2022 decision to break from the Thackeray faction was taken to protect Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva ideology, and that Monday’s

event continued that effort. “Wherever there is the ideology of Shiv Sena, that is where Shiv Sena is,” he said.

The ‘tigers’ who have transferred to Shinde Sena are as follows: Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar, Sanjay Jadhav, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Sanjay Deshmukh, and Bhausaheb Wakchaure.

Shinde said he had personally spoken to all six MPs over the preceding two days and described them as “real stars” who had joined not for personal gain but to serve their constituencies. On MP Nimbalkar, Shinde said it was “sad” that a court case had not gone in his favour.

Defending the 2022 split, Shinde recalled predictions that none of the 40 MLAs who backed him would win re-election. “I had said if they don’t win, I will resign and go back to my village and become a farmer,” he said. He said 60 were subsequently re-elected.

Shinde also cited the Ladki Bahin scheme and infrastructure projects as evidence of delivery over the past four years and said the government’s agenda remained development for people below the poverty line. “We are a double engine sarkar. We are in the state, we are at the Centre,” he said.

Closing on the party’s internal culture, Shinde said no one in Shiv Sena held the rank of boss. “We are all colleagues. I also worked as a karyakarta when I was CM. I will continue to work as a karyakarta,” he said.