Nagpur/Amravati/Akola/Yavatmal: All four Vidarbha MLAs from Sena UBT confirmed they will be present at party chief Uddhav Thackeray’s public rally scheduled Saturday in Yavatmal and Washim, a reassuring signal for the party which is under a poaching threat from rival Shinde Sena. A week earlier, six MPs from UBT defected to the Shinde camp and now Thackeray is holding rallies in their constituencies, which began with Mumbai a few days ago. After Deputy CM Eknath Shinde said defection of MPs was just a “trailer”, speculations are rife that Operation Tiger 3.0 is underway to get the required 14 MLAs (out of 20) to avoid the anti-defection clause kicking in.Thackeray, who launched the tour on June 21 from Mumbai North-East, the constituency of rebel MP Sanjay Dina Patil, will cover Yavatmal, Washim, and Hingoli on Saturday before moving to Parbhani and Dharashiv on Sunday and Shirdi on Monday.In this background, the four party MLAs from this region are suddenly in the spotlight — whether they will be present in the Saturday rally. With the assembly’s monsoon session off for the weekend, none of the four UBT MLAs from the region has an official reason to stay away.Wani (Yavatmal) MLA Sanjay Derkar told TOI, “I am a true follower of Balasaheb Thackeray. I got elected on the symbol of the party led by Balasaheb’s son Uddhav ji, and I will never break the trust of people and my party. I will be present during the Yavatmal rally.”Daryapur (Amravati) MLA Gajanan Lawate told TOI he too would attend the Yavatmal rally. Lawate said, “I am firmly with UBT and will stay with it so long as I am an MLA of Daryapur.” He added he had received no call or proposal from Shinde Sena on switching sides.Balapur (Akola) MLA Nitin Deshmukh, who was among the first legislators to return from Guwahati during the 2022 Shinde rebellion, dismissed the defection talk. Deshmukh said, “No one has called me, and I don’t think anyone has the courage to call me. My loyalty remains firmly with Thackeray and will join him during his Washim visit.”Mehkar (Amravati) MLA Siddharth Kharat struck a similar note and said, “I am a loyal Shiv Sainik. Thackeray made me an MLA. How can I leave the person who gave me this opportunity?” He said he would accompany Thackeray in Washim and denied receiving any approach from rival camps.Shinde Sena functionaries have dismissed Thackeray’s tour as belated outreach, accusing him of ignoring these constituencies during local body elections when party workers were left to fend for themselves.
