Aaditya Thackeray accused the BJP of engineering defections from Shiv Sena to expand its parliamentary strength, alleging that the ruling party’s larger objective was to secure the numbers needed to alter the Constitution.
The Shiv Sena MLA made the charge on Monday as six of the party’s Lok Sabha MPs moved towards the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, deepening the organisational crisis facing Uddhav Thackeray’s faction four years after the original split in the party. Aaditya said the lawmakers had been elected on the strength of Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership and the party’s symbol and accused the BJP of using pressure politics to weaken opposition formations.
“Today they are breaking our MPs and MLAs as they are willing to change the Constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Aaditya said, linking the latest political churn to the BJP’s performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, when it won 240 seats and fell short of a majority on its own. He argued that voters had stopped the ruling party from reaching the numbers it had sought, but that efforts were now being made to compensate through defections.
The six MPs who shifted allegiance were identified as Omprakash Rajenimbalkar, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure and Sanjay Uttamrao Deshmukh. Their move leaves the Uddhav Thackeray camp with a sharply reduced presence in the Lok Sabha and gives Shinde a major political boost ahead of civic and local body battles in Maharashtra.
Shinde welcomed the MPs at a public event in Mumbai, presenting the move as a consolidation of the “real” Shiv Sena. He said the lawmakers had taken their decision voluntarily and within the legal and constitutional framework. The Shinde camp has argued that the six MPs constitute two-thirds of the Shiv Sena group in the Lok Sabha, a threshold that could become central to any anti-defection challenge.
The defection is being seen as the second major blow to Uddhav Thackeray since the 2022 rebellion, when Shinde walked out with a large group of MLAs, triggering the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Shinde later became chief minister with BJP support, while the Election Commission subsequently recognised his faction as Shiv Sena and allotted it the bow-and-arrow symbol.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction has continued to contest that political and legal outcome, maintaining that the original party’s ideological and organisational legacy rests with the leadership that stayed with Uddhav. The party fought the 2024 Lok Sabha election under the Shiv Sena name and the flaming torch symbol, winning nine seats in Maharashtra.
Aaditya’s remarks sought to turn the defection row into a wider constitutional argument, echoing the opposition’s 2024 campaign line that the BJP’s call for a larger mandate raised concerns about institutional changes. The BJP has repeatedly rejected claims that it intends to undermine constitutional safeguards, describing such allegations as fear-mongering by rivals unable to counter its electoral appeal.
The political fallout in Maharashtra widened as Uddhav Thackeray convened meetings with party legislators to assess the damage and prevent further erosion. Several leaders from the Shinde camp, however, signalled that more defections could follow, with one minister suggesting that the party would now turn its focus to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and disgruntled legislators.
For Shiv Sena, the immediate challenge is to retain its remaining lawmakers, reassure cadres and frame the departures as betrayal rather than an irreversible organisational collapse. The party’s strength has rested heavily on Uddhav’s personal appeal in Mumbai, parts of the Konkan and several urban pockets, but the latest movement of MPs gives Shinde a stronger claim over the parliamentary wing.
