Maha tussle: Thackeray sacks 2 leaders; 12 Shiv Sena MPs may form separate group

Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction expelled former Maharashtra minister Ramdas Kadam and former MP Aanand Rao Adsul.

The Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday expelled former Maharashtra minister Ramdas Kadam and former MP Aanand Rao Adsul. The move comes soon after Kadam resigned claiming he was consistently "insulted" while Thackeray always remained busy when he was the chief minister.

Last month, Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde rebelled against the party along with 39 legislators. (File)

There are speculation that both Ramdas and Adsul would join Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s camp. Ramdas’s son Yogesh Kadam has already joined the Shinde camp.

Kadam wrote a letter to Thackeray, who heads Shiv Sena, tendering his resignation as "Shiv Sena leader". In his letter, Kadam expressed his anguish over the 2019 post-poll alliance between Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Congress, which he said was a betrayal of the thoughts of Sena founder the late Bal Thackeray.

Kadam, who hails from the Ratnagiri district, became an MLA for the first time in 1990 and went on to win three more terms. He was appointed as Shiv Sena leader in 2005. He also served as the leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 2005 to 2009. He became an MLC for the first time in 2010 and again in 2015. Kadam had served as the state environment minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party-Sena government in 2014-19.

He was also denied another term as a member of the state Legislative Council last year.

Last month, Shiv Sena MLA Shinde rebelled against the party along with 39 legislators. Shinde was on June 30 sworn in as the chief minister and BJP's Devendra Fadnavis had taken the oath as his deputy.

After the Shiv Sena's division in Maharashtra assembly, its parliamentary party was also staring at a split with several MPs set to petition Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recognise them as a separate group.

A Shiv Sena Lok Sabha member claimed that at least 12 of the 18 Shiv Sena members will meet Birla to submit a formal letter to recognise it as a separate group.

Kalaben Delkar, the Lok Sabha member from Dadra & Nagar Haveli, has pledged her allegiance to the Shiv Sena, but had not contested the election on the party symbol.

Shinde will be in Delhi on Tuesday and the breakaway faction of Lok Sabha members are expected to meet him.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena on Monday evening approached Birla with a plea that Vinayak Raut was the "duly appointed" leader of its parliamentary party and urged him not to entertain any representation from the breakaway faction.

The letter submitted to the Speaker by Raut, the leader of the Shiv Sena parliamentary party, also made it clear that Rajan Vichare was the chief whip.

"You are therefore called upon not to acknowledge or entertain representation made by any other MP(s) or acknowledge or entertain any direction/whip issued by anybody else, falsely claiming to be the leader or the chief whip of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party," Raut said.

(With inputs from agencies)