Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant speaks during a media conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut is also present | Photo Credit: ANI

A split appeared imminent in the Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday, with a group of rebel leaders claiming the backing of six of its nine Lok Sabha MPs meeting with Speaker Om Birla.

In Uttar Pradesh, BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar claimed a “major split” is brewing in the Samajwadi Party, with 20 of its 41 Lok Sabha MPs ready to switch to the NDA.

Taken together, the two developments extend a pattern that began with defections from the AAP’s Rajya Sabha ranks and culminated in last week’s split in the Trinamool Congress, which has already begun shifting the political arithmetic in the BJP’s favour.

Numbers game

Every such departure chips away at the Opposition’s strength and brings the ruling party closer to the two-thirds majority that eluded it when the delimitation-linked Constitution Amendment Bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha in April, with 298 votes in favour against 230, well short of the 362 required

In the Sena (UBT) camp, Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Sanjay Raut held a press conference to address speculations about “Operation Tiger” – the move by the BJP to pressure the Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs. He denied that any MP was planning to switch to the Eknath Shinde-led faction. The party issued a three-line whip for Thursday’s parliamentary party meeting.

Only three of the nine Lok Sabha MPs joined Raut at his press conference, with the rest unaccounted for. The list of ‘rebels’ includes Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Bhausahed Wakchaure and Imraje Nimbalkar.

Party MP Anil Desai told reporters they had asked the Speaker to guard against unlawful defection, arguing the law allows only the original party, and not a breakaway faction, however large, to merge with another. Raut went further, alleging some MPs were being offered “₹50 crore” to switch, ₹15 crore upfront and the rest later. He said other means of coercsion and pressure tactics are also being employed by the BJP to lure the MPs. Citing the example of Om Raje Nimbalkar, Rout said: He was threatened with the court verdict of his father Pawanraje Nimbalkar’s murder case”. The case was heard on June 16, with the court saying the judgment will be pronounced on June 20.

From Uttar Pradesh, Rajbhar, an NDA ally, claimed that SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav had handed Union Home Minister Amit Shah a letter, asserting the SP was “under pressure” over old mining and Gomti riverfront cases and was now “ready to join the BJP”, a claim that the SP has refuted.

The Congress has already accused the BJP of engineering defections to force through the women’s-quota-delimitation package, with Jairam Ramesh alleging Amit Shah was trying to secure numbers for the Bill in the run-up to the monsoon session.

Published on June 17, 2026