Amid raging speculation of a split within the Shiv Sena MPs, seven of the 19 Lok Sabha MPs were missing at a meeting of all lawmakers called by party chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence ‘Matoshree’ on Monday.
Twelve Lok Sabha MPs were present along with the two Rajya Sabha lawmakers Sanjay Raut and Priyanka Chaturvedi while the other RS MP Anil Desai, said to be a staunch supporter of the Thackeray faction, was in Delhi.
Ever since Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s intra-party revolt last month, which saw him break away from the Thackeray faction along with 39 other Sena MLAs and topple the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government, rumours have been rife about a significant section of Sena MPs being in touch with the Shinde camp.
