Mumbai, June 22 (IANS) In a bid to keep his flock together amid sweeping rumours of impending defections, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday chaired an emergency meeting of all party legislators.

The high-stakes meeting, timed with the commencement of the state legislature’s monsoon session, served as a crucial strategy-mapping session and a symbolic show of strength.

It follows intense political turbulence over “Operation Tiger”, an alleged manoeuvre by the rival Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction to engineer the defection of several Shiv Sena (UBT) Lok Sabha MPs.

The meeting coincided with six rebel UBT MPs officially joining the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in another function. Out of the party’s total 26 state legislators (20 MLAs and 6 MLCs), 22 were in attendance.

To send a strong signal of unity amid the ongoing crisis, the legislators concluded the hour-long meeting by taking a group photograph alongside Thackeray.

Four lawmakers, MLAs Sanjay Derkar, Rahul Patil, and Sanjay Potnis, along with MLC Sunil Shinde, were absent. Party insiders quickly downplayed their non-attendance, noting that the legislators had secured prior permission from the leadership due to personal obligations, local religious events, and commitments related to the recent Legislative Council election results.

During the meeting, Thackeray directed his lawmakers to mount an aggressive and highly organised defence inside the House. With the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition aiming to secure the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) post, Thackeray instructed legislators to systematically corner the government on pressing public issues.

“We have been told to work aggressively. We will firmly raise the issues of farmers, the acute water crisis plaguing regions like Vidarbha and Marathwada, and the concerns of Mumbai,” stated Sena (UBT) MLC Ambadas Danve following the session.

Additionally, Thackeray instructed his MLAs and MLCs to actively ground themselves in the home constituencies of the rebel MPs rumoured to be shifting sides.

The political churn intensified after a parliamentary meeting in New Delhi last week saw only three of the party’s nine Lok Sabha MPs attend in person. While the Shinde faction claimed that a final date for the “operation” to assimilate the remaining UBT MPs was being finalised, the UBT leadership strongly hit back.

Slamming the ruling Mahayuti alliance, former minister and party legislator Aaditya Thackeray accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde of focusing purely on political horse-trading rather than governance.

He alleged that “they don’t have money for employee salaries and welfare schemes, but they have money to buy MPs,” further accusing the ruling party of attempting to break opposition ranks to eventually alter the Constitution.

Meanwhile, senior leader Sanjay Raut dismissed the defection claims as outright fabrications, stating that the three Lok Sabha MPs remain firmly behind Uddhav Thackeray.

Earlier, Thackeray announced his three-day tour from June 27 to June 29 to visit constituencies from where the party MPs defected to the Shinde faction.

–IANS

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