MUMBAI: The parliamentary party meeting called by Shiv Sena (UBT) in New Delhi on Thursday was attended only by 3 of its 9 Lok Sabha MPs — Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai and Rajabhau Waze, indicating that ‘Operation Tiger,’ the name given to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s attempt to get UBT MPs over to its side, was more or less complete.The Uddhav Sena had hoped that if more than 3 MPs came in for the meet, it would be able to block the breakaway group from reaching the 2/3rds requirement for avoiding provisions of the anti-defection law.It also emerged that the rebel MPs, in their letter submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday, asked him to allocate seats for them near the 7 seats occupied by MPs from the Shinde-led Sena in Parliament.Sena (UBT) RS MP Sanjay Raut said on Thursday that action would be taken against the MPs who hadn’t turn up for the parliamentary party meeting as a ‘whip’ had been issued. LS MP Arvind Sawant said notices have been sent to the absent MPs.The 6 MPs are expected to join the Shinde-led Sena next week after they meet the LS Speaker and get their group recognised. Sena sources said Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Jadhav is group leader of the breakaway MPs.Sawant said, “The absent MPs have betrayed the party. We are going to issue showcause notices to them by the evening. If they do not respond within 7 days, legal action will be taken.We will write to the Speaker as well as the MPs. Our party’s directive (whip) was issued, and everyone received it. Despite that, they were not present here today.”
Raut continued his tirade of abuses against the 6 MPs on Thursday. He claimed that NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar had called him and said they must go to the constituencies of rebel MPs and hold protest rallies.Raut said that Pawar himself was ready to hold protest meetings. Raut described the action against the breakaway MPs as ‘Operation Tudwa (Beat them up).’e claimed the dissident MPs were given “an additional Rs 10 crore” and then moved to a safe location in Rajasthan. He demanded the police security extended to the “traitors” be withdrawn.Raut said if any MP broke away, “we will not allow him to roam free. Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and Congress will come together for this.” He added, “Yeh s**le g***du hai… g***du. They feel they have done this once. I will tell them, do it and show us. Aapko nahi todenge na toh hamare baap ka naam nahi batayenge. Hamare baap ka naam Balasaheb Thackeray hai (If we don’t break you, we won’t take our father’s name. Our father’s name is Balasaheb Thackeray). Are you mocking democracy? … We have already been to jail and are ready to go to jail again. But I will go to jail only after teaching them a lesson.” Raut claimed that he had not used any wrong words.
