Chaitanya.MarpakwarMumbai: As reports of 6 Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs forming a separate group intensified, the party tried to mount a pushback through a legal battle once again, as it had done in 2022 when Eknath Shinde walked away with most MLAs. It issued a whip asking all its 9 LS MPs to be present for a meeting of the parliamentary party at 11 am in New Delhi on Thursday, and Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant gave a letter to LS Speaker Om Birla requesting him not to entertain any claim to form a separate group or a merger with another political party by the defecting MPs.This was also seen as acknowledgment that at least some of the party’s MPs were indeed on their way out.The whip in relation to an “an important meeting of the Parliamentary Party regarding various issues of the party” was issued by MP Anil Desai, the UBT Sena’s chief whip in Lok Sabha. The UBT Sena will try to ensure that at least 4 LS MPs are present for the meeting to prevent the Shinde Sena from reaching the 2/3rds requirement for formation of a separate group.Sawant and Desai later also met lawyers like Kapil Sibal to discuss legal options, Sena (UBT) functionaries said.In the letter to the Speaker, Sawant, leader of the UBT Sena parliamentary party, said the claim that Sena (UBT) represents the ‘real Shiv Sena’ is sub-judice in the Supreme Court, and the letter was being written without prejudice to that claim.The letter stated, “I may also respectfully invite attention to the Directions by the Speaker, Lok Sabha, including Direction 121 and the allied provisions governing recognition of parties and groups in the House. These Directions contemplate recognition being accorded through the authorised leadership of a political party and prescribe minimum numerical thresholds for recognition. They do not provide any mechanism for recognition of a faction operating in opposition to the leadership and authority of the political party… from which such members claim to derive their mandate. The reported request [on the part of the breakaway MPs to form a group] therefore finds no support in the Directions governing parliamentary procedure either.”He said that Sena (UBT) must continue to be recognised as a single political party, represented in the House through its duly authorised leader and whip, and that no separate recognition, status, privilege or facility be accorded to any purported faction or breakaway group claiming to represent the party.“No decision be taken on any such request, if received, without first affording the Sena (UBT) an opportunity to place its submissions before your office. The party further reserves all rights available to it in law, including the right to invoke the provisions of the Tenth Schedule and pursue such remedies as may be necessary in relation to any conduct inconsistent with the constitutional principles referred to,” the letter said.
