Amid the growing split within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, where several rebel MLAs and MPs have distanced themselves from party chief Mamata Banerjee, a fresh political storm appears to be brewing in Maharashtra.
For the past two days, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has been holding a series of meetings with its nine Lok Sabha MPs amid fears that the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena may attempt to poach at least six of them under what is being dubbed "Operation Tiger".
Notably, the tiger was the symbol and mascot of the undivided Shiv Sena, drawn by party founder Bal Thackeray.
Leaders of the Shiv Sena (Shinde) have claimed that six MPs from the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) are likely to form a separate group and submit a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
According to Sena insiders who spoke to, the breakaway faction could subsequently merge with the Shinde Sena's Lok Sabha unit.
An HT reporter earlier said that the six MPs likely to form a breakaway group are Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi), Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim), Nagesh Patil Ashtikar (Hingoli), Omraje Nimbalkar (Dharashiv) and Sanjay Patil (Mumbai North East).
However, these claims could not be independently verified.
On Sunday, Uddhav had called a meeting of his party MPs.
While MPs Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, Waje and Patil attended the meeting in person, Nimbalkar, Wakchaure, Ashtikar and Deshmukh were present online.
Sanjay Jadhav, spoke to Thackeray over the phone, party leader Sanjay Raut had said.
However, on Wednesday afternoon, Patil denied speculation about joining the rival camp and asserted that he had no plans to quit his party.
"I have already clarified in the past that I am not joining any other party and am very much in Mumbai today.
