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By:

Quad Najmi and PTI

17 June 2026 at 5:11:32 pm

Uddhav faces another rebellion; decision today

Six Lok Sabha MPs trying to move away; picture may be clear at today’s Parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi AI generated image Mumbai: A cloak-and-dagger crisis engulfing the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has landed at the door of the Lok Sabha Speaker, with the party urging him to guard against any unlawful defection and issuing a whip directing its MPs to attend a meeting in Delhi on Thursday. Amid the escalating crisis, a group of rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders is learnt to have met...

Uddhav faces another rebellion; decision today

Six Lok Sabha MPs trying to move away; picture may be clear at today’s Parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi AI generated image Mumbai: A cloak-and-dagger crisis engulfing the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has landed at the door of the Lok Sabha Speaker, with the party urging him to guard against any unlawful defection and issuing a whip directing its MPs to attend a meeting in Delhi on Thursday. Amid the escalating crisis, a group of rebel Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders is learnt to have met Speaker Om Birla informally on Wednesday, claiming the support of six of the party's nine MPs in the Lower House, sources said. Thursday's high-stakes meeting in Delhi will legally and physically define whether Uddhav Thackeray retains his parliamentary strength or faces another devastating party division, the third since Raj Thackeray split Shiv Sena in 2006. Sources in Sena (UBT) said the rival camp still doesn't have the support of six MPs. They claim two of the six rebels have reportedly changed their mind. In a swift counter-offensive to contain the damage, the party high command issued a mandatory three-line whip, summoning an emergency parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to force a physical showdown where the MPs will have to mark their presence physically. The developments triggered a day of high political drama in the national capital, marked by a furious, expletive-laden press conference by Raut, a reported counter-meeting by the rebel faction with Lok Sabha Speaker Birla, and sharp condemnation from the Congress. The internal fracture was visible at Sanjay Raut's press briefing, where only three other Lok Sabha MPs, Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, and Rajabhau Waje, stood by him. The remaining six lawmakers were conspicuously absent; their exact whereabouts are unknown. The Sena (UBT) has nine MPs in the Lok Sabha, and at least two‑thirds of them would be required to form a separate group. Apart from Desai, Waje and Sawant, the other six MPs are Sanjay Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh, Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar and Sanjay Jadhav Not Reachable The six MPs stopped responding or became unavailable since Wednesday forenoon, after which the party stopped contacting them. They said when the party contacted Mumbai North East MP, Sanjay Dina Patil, he told party leaders that he was not with the rebel group. The party had asked them to submit a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, which he has not submitted so far. Later in the day, sources claimed that the group of six rebel lawmakers had privately met the Lok Sabha Speaker to claim a two-thirds majority in the Lower House, the precise threshold required to escape disqualification under the anti-defection law. Simultaneously, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who split the undivided Shiv Sena in 2022, was reportedly camping in Delhi to oversee the operational layout of the defection of MPs. He returned to his home town Thane in Wednesday night. He is reportedly studying all the legal aspects before taking a final call before the party’s foundation day on Friday. Speaker’s Role Following reports of the rebels' move, a loyalist delegation consisting of Raut, Sawant, and Desai rushed to meet Speaker Birla to file a formal representation urging him to reject any unlawful group alignment. Desai argued that the legal provisions are strictly on the side of the original organisational structure. "Under the law, a splinter group cannot simply merge with another party on its own, even if they have two-thirds support. Only the original administrative party holds that right," Desai told reporters, adding that the Speaker assured them he would thoroughly examine every legal aspect before rendering a decision. The widening panic inside the party also triggered a public, familial disconnect involving missing Hingoli MP Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar. While the MP remained unreachable, his son, Krushna Patil Ashtikar, the MVA's official candidate for Thursday's Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, released a video statement strongly defending Uddhav Thackeray. "I am a Shiv Sainik of Uddhav Thackeray. There is no room for doubt when it comes to me," the younger Ashtikar stated.

Hour of the Technocrat

The BJP’s Kerala gambit in form of Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s elevation marks a strategic shift, but can he deliver?

Kerala
Kerala

Few figures in Kerala’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have commanded as much attention in recent years as Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The suave technocrat-turned-politician, once the BJP’s great hope for breaking the Congress-Left duopoly in Thiruvananthapuram, has now been elevated to state president. His appointment marks a shift in the party’s strategy, an acknowledgment that its traditional playbook has yielded little in a state where Hindutva appeals have fallen flat. But will this pivot work?


As BJP state president, Chandrasekhar faces an unenviable task. The party’s only Lok Sabha win in Kerala, in the form of Suresh Gopi’s victory in Thrissur, came from a celebrity candidate rather than a broader ideological shift. The BJP remains a distant third force in a state where the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) dominate political life.


Chandrasekhar was picked to contest Thiruvananthapuram in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. At the time, the BJP seemed to have found its answer to Congress stalwart Shashi Tharoor. Both men exuded the polish that appeals to Kerala’s urban elite: impeccable English, foreign university credentials and an air of cosmopolitan sophistication. Early surveys suggested that Chandrasekhar had a fighting chance. Until the final hours of vote counting, he led Tharoor, only to lose by a slender margin of 16,077 votes.


The BJP has long struggled to crack Kerala’s electoral code. So, Chandrasekhar’s elevation is a calculated gamble. Unlike his predecessors, many of whom were bogged down by controversy, he brings a corporate sheen and a technocratic approach that could appeal to Kerala’s aspirational middle class. His career, spanning telecommunications, media and finance, lends credibility to his rhetoric on development and technology, which he vigorously pushed during his Lok Sabha campaign.


That campaign, notably, avoided overt communal rhetoric. Earlier, Chandrshekhar’s remarks following the 2023 Kalamassery blasts which linked the attack to “appeasement politics” and “jihad” had landed him in legal trouble.However, observers predict that a balancing act, between development-focused pragmatism and ideological posturing, will define his leadership in Kerala. With the BJP eager to court Christian voters, a demographic that has shown tentative signs of engagement with the party, Chandrasekhar will have to avoid alienating this bloc while also consolidating the BJP’s traditional base.


The BJP’s track record in Kerala has been uninspiring. Multiple state chiefs have been more notable for their gaffes than their electoral successes. KummanamRajasekharan’s unsolicited appearance at the Kochi Metro inauguration became a meme. K. Surendran’s dramatic posturing during the 2018 Sabarimala controversy gained media attention but little else.


Chandrasekhar’s appointment suggests the BJP is betting on competence over theatrics. Yet, his own political journey has been uneven. His attempt to dethrone Tharoor was one of the BJP’s most expensive campaigns in Kerala, featuring star endorsements and extensive media blitzes. Despite this, he failed to break the Congress-Left duopoly. Worse, his credibility took a hit when it emerged that he had not transferred his voter registration from Karnataka, rendering him ineligible to vote in Thiruvananthapuram.


Yet, the national party machinery will not give up on Kerala easily. With Narendra Modi securing a third term, the BJP will likely double down on its southern push, using both development and cultural issues to expand its base. Chandrasekhar’s role will be pivotal in shaping this effort. His challenge is not just to make the BJP competitive in more constituencies but to shed the image of the party as an interloper in Kerala politics.


His ability to do so will depend on whether he can stay disciplined. If he sticks to a message of governance and economic development, he could build credibility beyond the BJP’s core voters. If, however, he succumbs to the temptation of communal rhetoric to energise the base, he could risk reinforcing the very barriers that have kept the BJP out of power in Kerala for decades.

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