MUMBAI: Among the six Lok sabha MPs who have switched allegiance to Shinde Sena are Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani) and Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi). The crossing over of the 6 came eight days after they skipped a meeting of party MPs called by Uddhav Thackeray and six days after they submitted a letter to LS Speaker Om Birla seeking to form a separate group. Flanked by the MPs, Shinde said he was welcoming them into “the real Shiv Sena family of Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe”. Speaking of the importance of the occasion, he said, “Four years ago, on June 22, 2022, we led a rebellion. We were 40 MLAs initially, but we have hit a sixer now. In 2022, to save the Shiv Sena and Balasaheb’s ideology, we rebelled and did the first operation. Now the second phase has started.”Advising UBT Sena to “introspect instead of abusing those who have left”, Shinde termed the Uddhav camp as “people with a chemical locha (problem)”. Shinde said the entry of MPs into Shiv Sena had been carried out within the legal, constitutional and parliamentary framework. “All 6 MPs will fight the next polls on a Sena ticket, and will win,” he said. Sena ministers, MLAs, MLCs and senior functionaries were present at Monday’s show of strength. Sena functionary Ramdas Kadam claimed a “7th MP” had also signed the letter given to the LS Speaker and the “7th too was on the brink of joining Shinde Sena”.Shinde said all 6 MPs were grassroots-level workers who had joined Sena “not for personal gain but for people of their constituency, development of the constituency.” He said, “We are not here to break anyone or stop anyone but to expand Shiv Sena.” Sanjay Dina Patil said he had a problem with only one person because of whom he left Sena (UBT) but did not name anyone. Reacting to Uddhav ‘s rally in Bhandup in his constituency on Sunday, Patil said, “If only he had come earlier there would be no need to come now. If I had not gone, this quorum (of 6 MPs) would not have been complete. If I had been called I would have gone to Matoshree. But they do not want us. They do not want people with power, they want slaves,” he said.
