Maharashtra's already fractured Shiv Sena split further this week after six of the nine Lok Sabha MPs belonging to Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) formally switched allegiance to Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction. Shinde's camp, which has spent months working to peel away Thackeray loyalists in a campaign it internally called Operation Tiger, declared the effort complete once the sixth MP signed on.
The number six carries specific legal weight. Anti-defection law requires defectors to make up at least two-thirds of a party's elected legislators to avoid disqualification proceedings. With six of Shiv Sena (UBT)'s nine Lok Sabha members now in the Shinde camp, that threshold is cleared, insulating the group from being unseated on defection grounds. The MPs who crossed over were named as Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Jadhav, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar and Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar.
The defections trace back to the original 2022 split in the undivided Shiv Sena, when Shinde took a majority of state legislators and the party's traditional symbol with him, while Thackeray retained the Shiv Sena (UBT) name and a smaller but vocal rump. The 2024 Lok Sabha election had briefly looked like a partial recovery for Thackeray's faction, which won nine seats. This week's exits cut that tally to just three sitting MPs: Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai and Rajabhau Waje, the only members who turned up for a parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi convened in response to the crisis.
For Shinde, the move strengthens his bargaining position within Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti alliance alongside the BJP and the NCP, giving his faction a stronger claim to representing the Shiv Sena legacy in Parliament. For the Thackeray camp, the loss is being framed as a betrayal of voters rather than simple political horse-trading; Aaditya Thackeray said the switch undermines the trust the electorate placed in those MPs and raises broader questions about political loyalty in the state.
The episode adds to a pattern that has defined Maharashtra politics since 2022, where both the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party have splintered into rival factions battling in courts and at the ballot box over symbols, names and legacy. With Shiv Sena (UBT) now reduced to a fraction of its already-diminished Lok Sabha presence, the coming months are likely to test whether Thackeray can rebuild before the next round of state elections.
