Shiv Sena (UBT) Issues Fresh Notice to 6 Absentee MPs

The party's Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Anil Desai, served the formal notice, giving the MPs 24 hours to submit a written explanation for their absence from a mandatory parliamentary party meeting.

The notice carries a stern warning that failure to respond within the stipulated period will be treated as voluntarily giving up party membership, paving the way for action under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

The move comes amid "Operation Tiger," a reported mass defection of Shiv Sena (UBT) parliamentarians to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, deepening the crisis within the Uddhav Thackeray faction.

The tensions came to the fore on Thursday in New Delhi when only three of the party's nine Lok Sabha MPs attended a mandatory meeting convened by the party leadership.

The meeting was attended by Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, and Rajabhau Waje, while six MPs—Nagesh Aashtikar, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar, and Bhausaheb Wakchaure—remained absent.

Following the meeting, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut announced that show-cause notices had been issued to the absentee MPs and that the process for seeking their disqualification had begun.

“The process for taking action has started. We will make every effort to get them disqualified. If the Speaker of the Lok Sabha works according to the rules, the law, and the Supreme Court's directives, these people will be disqualified,” Raut said at a press conference.

Speculation surrounding "Operation Tiger" intensified after Shiv Sena MLC Chandrakant Raghuvanshi claimed that six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs had expressed confidence in Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and had already joined his faction.