Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs Meet Speaker Amid Defection Fears

Amid swirling speculation of a fresh split in the Shiv Sena (UBT), three of the party's Lok Sabha MPs — Anil Desai, Arvind Sawant and Rajabhau Waje — on Wednesday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted a letter, in a move seen as an attempt to pre-empt any bid by rebel MPs to stake claim to the party's parliamentary wing.

The meeting came hours after Sanjay Raut alleged that attempts were under way to engineer another split in the Uddhav Thackeray-led party and claimed that Maharashtra MPs were being lured with large sums of money to switch sides.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital earlier in the day, the Rajya Sabha MP alleged that the "Minimum Support Price" for poaching an MP had been fixed at Rs 50 crore and that Rs 15 crore was merely an advance payment.

However, he said the party had not received any official information about any of its MPs quitting.

The political temperature rose after only three of Shiv Sena (UBT)'s nine Lok Sabha MPs — Desai, Sawant and Waje — appeared alongside Raut at the press conference, fuelling speculation that several MPs could be preparing to break away from the party.

Reports have suggested that at least six of the party's nine Lok Sabha MPs could approach the Speaker seeking recognition as a separate group before eventually joining the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. There has, however, been no official confirmation of any split.

Raut had earlier said a whip had been issued for a meeting of the party's parliamentary wing and asserted that any MP wishing to change sides should first resign from Parliament and seek a fresh mandate from the people. He also warned that the party would politically fight any attempt to weaken it under the purported "Operation Tiger".