Twelve Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde, met Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday and requested him to change the party's floor leader in the lower House of Parliament.
The rebel Shiv Sena MPs met Birla a day after the party's floor leader, Vinayak Raut, gave a letter to the Speaker, asking him not to entertain any representation from the rival faction, reports PTI.
"Twelve Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena met Speaker Om Birla and requested him to appoint Rahul Shewale in place of Vinayak Raut as the party's floor leader," Hemant Godse, one of the 12 MPs of the Shinde faction who met Birla, said.
Raut, in his letter submitted to the Speaker on Monday night, had made it clear that he was the "duly appointed" leader of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party and Rajan Vichare was the chief whip.
The Shiv Sena has 19 MPs in Lok Sabha, 18 from Maharashtra.
Sources in the Shinde Sena claim 12 of these 19 MPs attended a virtual meeting with Eknath Shinde on Monday and extended their support while expressing their faith and confidence in the rebel leader whose faction now dominates the party founded by Bal Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray's father, ndtv.com reported.
The MPs will lay claim to the Shiv Sena's official symbol only after the Speaker decides on their request to be recognized as a separate group.
Security ramped up
On Tuesday, security outside homes and offices of some Shiv Sena parliamentarians hawere stepped up, according to an official. Nagpur police have beefed up security at the office of Sena MP Krupal Tumane.
The police official said that security was provided to the office of Tumane, the Lok Sabha member from Ramtek, on the instructions of Nagpur Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar.
Personnel of the Nandanvan police station were deployed at Tumane's office at Bhande Plot in Nagpur city. A police jeep was also stationed and a sub-inspector was in-charge of the security cover, the official added.
Shinde's successful coup
Most MLAs of the Shiv Sena joined Eknath Shinde last month, bringing down Uddhav Thackeray's coalition government. Shinde formed a government with the BJP, which powered his successful coup against his party chief.
Last week, after a meeting with his MPs, Uddhav Thackeray broke with his alliance partners and declared support for the BJP's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. Opposition parties said Thackeray, beaten and isolated, had little choice but to agree with his MPs.
Thackeray and Shinde are now waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on multiple cases related to the Shiv Sena revolt, which may or may ot settle the question of who's the boss of the Shiv Sena.
