Shiv Sena

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued an official circular regarding the change of Shiv Sena leader in the House. On Tuesday, 12 Lok Sabha MPs of Shinde faction met Birla, and requested him to recognise Shewale as the leader of the party in the House. Presently the party has a total of 19 MPs in Lok Sabha, and out of these 12 MPs opted for Mumbai South Central MP Shewale as their new leader in the House.

He added that the 12 MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and submitted a letter to this effect as the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party Group in the Lower House. "While Rahul Shewale is the new Shiv Sena group leader, Bhavana Gawali is now the chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha," said Shinde. The CM also made it clear that the whips issued by Gawali will now be applicable to all the 18 Shiv Sena MPs in the Lok Sabha.

The MPs, around a dozen, are expected to soon announce their formal support to Shinde after attending an online meeting with him on Monday. In anticipation, the Maharashtra Police and Central government has given these MPs extra security at their homes or offices in Mumbai to prevent any untoward incidents.

In Mumbai, the Shinde group has named a new national executive of the Shiv Sena, appointing Shinde as its leader and a group of senior leaders sacked by the party to the new body. Sena's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Monday called several MPs to his home in the national capital to disprove the reported claims by the Shinde group, and termed the fresh development as 'Comedy Express 2' after the 'Comedy Express 1' with MLAs was played out in Mumbai.

The announcement came close on the heels of Shiv Sena declaring support for Murmu. The JMM issued a statement signed by its founder Shibu Soren, which said that after Independence, this is the first time that a tribal woman is contesting for the top Constitutional post and all the MPs and MLAs of the party will vote for Murmu.

Shiv Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut indicated this while interacting with the media, saying party President Uddhav Thackeray will announce his decision in a day or so. "Backing Murmu does not mean supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party. The decision will be taken keeping in view the public sentiments," Raut made it clear, amid a clamour from its former saffron ally to toe its (BJP) line.

Referring to claims by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Group and media buzz to the effect, he made it clear that "nobody can steal anything that belongs to the Shiv Sena". Rejecting the contentions and claims, Thackeray said that he has already consulted top experts who have assured that the party's 'bow and arrow' symbol belongs to and will remain with the Shiv Sena.

The move has come as a jolt to the former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, ahead of the upcoming civic elections in Thane where the party has ruled for many years.

Singhvi contended that the Speaker has no jurisdiction to recognise the whip nominated by Shinde as Thackeray is still the head of Shiv Sena political party. He said, "Speaker cannot recognise the whip...the party recognises the whip". He added that earlier Shinde group had challenged the Shiv Sena official whip Sunil Prabhu, but the court declined to pass any interim order.

The legislature has accorded recognition to the Sena rebel leader -- now Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, as the SSLP and the rebel group's nominee Bharat Gogawale as the Chief Whip. Following the rebellion in the Sena which erupted on June 20, the Sena had removed its then SSLP leader Shinde and replaced him with Ajay Chaudhary, besides naming Prabhu as the Chief Whip.