Shiv Sena MPs meet Eknath Shinde, appoint Chief Whip in Lok Sabha

The 12 who met Shinde are among the 18 from the state, and seemed to have shown their allegiance to the incumbent chief minister

Shinde, along with a handful of other MLAs, had split from the Shiv Sena in June amidst political high drama. Credit: IANS Photo

Striking yet another blow to Uddhav Thackeray, 12 Shiv Sena MPs met Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in New Delhi and appointed new Group Leader and Chief Whip of the party in Lok Sabha.

However, no new group has been formed.

Two-time Mumbai South Central MP, Rahul Shewale, would be the new Group Leader while five-term MP from Yavatmal-Washim, Bhavana Gawali, was re-appointed the Chief Whip.

When the political crisis was underway in Maharashtra, Gawali was removed as the Chief Whip and in her place Rajan Vichare, an MP from Thane, was appointed.

Vinayak Raut, an MP from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, who was the Group Leader of Shiv Sena, is with the Thackeray camp.

Read | NCP warns Shiv Sena rebels against criticising Pawars

The new decisions - appointment of Shewale and restoration of post of Gawali was communicated to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

“We have done nothing illegal. In democracy, numbers are important. Whatever we have done is under the ambit of the Constitution, laws, rules and regulations,” Shinde told reporters in a news conference in New Delhi.

“We all are from Shiv Sena and we are going forward with the ideals of Balasaheb Thackeray and ‘Dharmaveer’ Anand Dighe,” he added.

The Shiv Sena has a total of 22 MPs - 19 in Lok Sabha and three in Rajya Sabha.

Of the 19 MPs in Lok Sabha, 18 are from Maharashtra and one from Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Among the 18 from the state, 12 have shown their allegiance towards Shinde, who has engineered a split in Shiv Sena while 6 of them are local to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.

The 12 MPs in the Shinde camp are: Bhavana Gawali (Yavatmal-Washim), Rahul Shewale (Mumbai South Central), Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan), Hemant Patil (Hingoli), Krupal Tumane (Ramtek), Sadashiv Lokhande (Shirdi), Hemant Godse (Nashik), Rajendra Gavit (Palghar), Dhairyasheel Mane (Hatkanangale) , Shrirang Barne (Maval), Prataprao Jadhav (Buldhana) and Sanjay Mandlik (Kolhapur).

The six Lok Sabha MPs who are with Thackeray are Arvind Sawant (South Mumbai), Gajanan Kirtikar (North West Mumbai), Vinayak Raut (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), Hemant Patil (Hingoli), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani) and Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad).

Kalaben Delkar, the Shiv Sena MP from Dadra & Nagar Haveli, is expected to side with Thackeray-camp.

All the Rajya Sabha MPs - Sanjay Raut, Anil Desai and Priyanka Chaturvedi are with Thackeray.

For a split in the Lok Sabha, the Shinde faction would need at least 13 MPs.