The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on May 30 claimed that 22 MLAs and nine MPs from rival Shiv Sena were feeling suffocated due to "step-motherly treatment" by the BJP and could quit the group led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Latching on to Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar's remark that his party was getting step-motherly treatment, an editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' dubbed the Shinde group MLAs and MPs as “hens and cocks” imprisoned in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) coop and that it cannot be said when they could be slaughtered.
It said Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (then undivided) severed ties with the BJP (in 2019) due to the same "step-motherly treatment" which became unbearable, and also for its safety and self-respect.