Mumbai: Amid speculations that 14 Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs will soon join deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s party, Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant on Tuesday said whenever ‘Operation Tiger 3.0’ is successful, it will be “breaking news” and people will come to know.Samant said: “People from Sena (UBT), right from gram panchayat to corporators and MLAs and big netas want to work under Shinde. This means they are ready to switch over.”According to Shiv Sena functionaries, 14 Sena (UBT) MLAs could jump ship provided five or six of them get ministerial berths and three ministers have been tasked to get them to switch sides.Sena (UBT) has 20 MLAs and the two-third mark to initiate a split is 14. Ten of the 20 Sena (UBT) MLAs are from the city, including Uddhav’s son Aaditya and his cousin Varun Sardesai. If 14 of the 20 Sena (UBT) MLAs split, it would be a major setback for the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which has already lost six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs to Shinde’s Sena in June.Shiv Sena (UBT), however, has denied any chance of a fresh split in the party and said the speculation is baseless. Sena (UBT) MLA Kailash Patil said since the Maratha reservation and OBC protests are on, Shinde’s party is spreading rumours about a split in the Sena (UBT) to divert attention. “None of the MLAs from Sena (UBT) will quit or leave the party. These are all baseless speculations,” he asserted.In 2022, Shinde’s rebellion had split the undivided Shiv Sena and then on June 22, 2026, six Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha MPs officially defected to his party, in a move dubbed ‘Operation Tiger 2.0’.In June, Shiv Sena minister Gulabrao Patil had created a stir in political circles by saying that Operation Tiger 3.0 had begun and that 14 Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs would join Shinde. “Wait for some time, more than 14 MLAs will come to him (Shinde). Eknath Shinde does not speak, he only moves his hands on his beard, this has been admitted by Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya himself. When Eknath Shinde moves his hands on his beard, then Operation Tiger is a success,” Patil had said.In response, Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs had said that those who had joined Shinde had been bought for Rs 50 crore each.
