SHIV SENA APPOINTS MP RAJAN VICHARE NEW LS CHIEF WHIP

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Wednesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla nominating Thane MP Rajan Vichare as the new chief whip to replace incumbent Bhavana Gawali. This move has triggered speculation that the vertical split in the Shiv Sena may play out over the next few days in the run up to the July 11 hearing about the legality of the new Maharashtra government in the Supreme Court.

A Sena MP from Yavatmal-Washim in Vidarbha district, Gawali, had sympathized with the 40 rebel MLA camp led by Eknath Shinde. On June 22, when the faction had flew to Guwahati from Surat, she had written a letter to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to “consider the demands of rebel MLAs in favour of Hindutva”.

Gawali’s removal came a day after Mumbai MP Rahul Shewale wrote to Thackeray and recommended that the party support the candidature of NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. This request came in despite the fact that Sena allies Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are backing the opposition sponsored candidate Yashwant Sinha.

Shewale cited Balasaheb Thackeray’s decision to back Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential chair even when they were from rival Congress as precedents. Speculation is rife that both Gawali and Shewale are among 20 MPs that are in contact with the Eknath Shinde camp, along with seven Sena MLAs, as first reported by First India in its July 05 issue. The other leaders who reportedly support the Shinde camp include Shinde’s son and Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan MP), Hemant Godse (Nashik), Krupal Tumane (Ramtek), Hemant Patil (Hingoli), Prataprao Jadhav (Buldhana), Sadashiv Lokhande (Shirdi), Rajendra Gavit (Palghar), Shrirang Barne (Maval).

The Shiv Sena has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs. Vinayak Raut (Ratnagiri), Arvind Sawant (South Mumbai), Gajanan Kirtikar (NW Mumbai), Dhairyasheel Mane (Hatkanangale), Sanjay Mandlik (Kolhapur), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad) and Kalaben Delkar of Dadra, Nagar, Haveli, can be counted in Uddhav’s camp.