Amid raging speculation of an imminent exodus of Shiv Sena MPs from the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s rebel Sena camp, Sena MP from Kolhapur district Sanjay Mandlik on Sunday strongly hinted at joining Mr. Shinde’s faction soon.
A meeting of Mr. Mandlik’s supporters, led by his son Rohit Mandlik, was held in Kolhapur on Sunday wherein they urged the MP to join hands with the Shinde camp.
According to sources, the MP’s supporters said that Mr. Mandlik ought to join forces with Chief Minister Shinde and the new Sena (Shinde camp)- BJP government considering the smooth allocation of development funds for the district as well as the strategic imperative of the 2024 general election.
Mr. Mandik is expected to announce his decision soon.
Sources also said that the other Sena MP in Kolhapur—Dhairyasheel Mane, who won the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha seat by defeating farmer leader Raju Shetti in the 2019 general election—was also en route to allying with the Shinde faction.
Ever since Mr. Shinde’s intra-party revolt last month, which saw him along with 39 other Sena MLAs break away from the Thackeray faction and topple the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government, there have been reports of many of the 19 Lok Sabha Sena MPs being in touch with the Shinde camp.
While numbers vary according to sources, it is assumed that at least 12 of the 19 MPs may soon desert the Uddhav camp to join Mr. Shinde and the new government.
Among the Lok Sabha MPs, Vinayak Raut and Arvind Sawant are considered to be staunch supporters of Uddhav Thackeray while Sanjay Raut and Priyanka Chaturvedi are the Uddhav loyalists in the Rajya Sabha.
Recently, speaking to a vernacular news channel, former Minister Uday Samant, who cast in his lot with the rebels, claimed that 12-14 MPs of the 19 Lok Sabha lawmakers would certainly come over to the Shinde camp very soon.
Last week, seven of these MPs skipped a meeting called by Mr. Thackeray to discuss the party’s stance over the Presidential election. They included Mr. Mandlik along with Kalyan MP Dr. Shrikant Shinde - the son of current Chief Minister Shinde; Yavatmal MP Bhawna Gavli; Hingoli MP Hemant Patil; Parbhani MP Sanjay Jadhav; Ramtek MP Krupal Tumane; and the MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli Kalaben Delkar.
Recently, the Uddhav Thackeray faction removed Ms. Gavli from her post as the Shiv Sena’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha after she wrote a letter to Mr. Thackeray expressing her support for Mr. Shinde’s revolt.
A number of supporters of Ms. Gavli and ex-Minister and rebel MLA Sanjay Rathod have already moved over to Mr. Shinde’s camp.
While Mr. Thackeray is finding it hard to stem the flow of MLAs and possibly MPs from his faction to that of Mr. Shinde’s group, his camp claims that ordinary Shiv Sainiks are still with the former Chief Minister.
