Shiv Sena crisis: More jolts for Uddhav as Eknath Shinde appoints new national executive for party

Speculation rife that 12 Sena MPs in Lok Sabha to join Shinde’s rebel camp; senior leader Ramdas Kadam parts ways with Mr. Thackeray

In another jolt to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, the rebel Sena camp led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced a new national executive committee even as rumours swirled of an imminent exodus of 12 of the 19 Lok Sabha MPs from Mr. Thackeray’s camp to Mr. Shinde’s group.

According to sources, the split could even occur during Mr. Shinde’s visit to Delhi on Tuesday to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the impending cabinet expansion of the new Sena (Shinde camp)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Maharashtra.

Ever since Mr. Shinde’s intra-party revolt last month, which saw him along with 39 other Sena MLAs breakaway from the Thackeray faction and topple the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ government, there have been persistent reports of several of the 19 Lok Sabha Sena MPs being in touch with the Shinde camp in order to form a breakaway group in the Lower House of Parliament. 

However, Uddhav loyalist and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut dismissed speculation of a split in the party’s Lok Sabha group, remarking that the numbers of MPs reportedly joining the Shinde camp were merely put out to “mislead people.”

Yet, in spite of Mr. Raut’s optimism, portents for Mr. Thackeray’s dwindling band of supporters manifested itself earlier in the day in the form of former Maharashtra Minister Ramdas Kadam’s resignation.

A disgruntled Mr. Kadam, who resigned as a Shiv Sena leader, complained in a letter to Mr. Thackeray that he had been consistently “insulted” when the former was CM of the State.

An old Sena hand, Mr. Kadam, considered a stalwart Sena leader in the Konkan, expressed anguish in his letter about Mr. Thackeray eschewing Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s ideology by joining hands with the NCP and the Congress.