Uddhav Thackeray has rejected claims that Shiv Sena could merge with the Congress, pushing back against a rebellion by six Lok Sabha MPs that threatens to deepen the party’s crisis four years after the first major split in the organisation founded by Bal Thackeray.
Addressing party workers in Mumbai at the Shiv Sena foundation day event, Thackeray said the party “was not born to merge with anyone” and insisted it had been created to fight for Marathi interests and protect Hindutva. His remarks came after six of the party’s nine Lok Sabha MPs skipped a parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi and were said to have conveyed to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they feared the Uddhav-led faction was moving towards a merger with the Congress.
The MPs who stayed away from the meeting were Nagesh Aashtikar, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar and Bhausaheb Wakchaure. The three MPs who remained with the Thackeray camp at the meeting were Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai and Rajabhau Waje. The episode has exposed the sharpest strain yet in the parliamentary wing of Shiv Sena, which won nine Lok Sabha seats in 2024 as part of the opposition alliance.
Thackeray sought to frame the rebellion as an ideological and moral test rather than a numbers contest. “If we did not merge with the BJP despite being an ally for 30 years, how can we merge with the Congress?” he said, adding that he feared the Maharashtra BJP could merge with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. He acknowledged differences with the Congress but argued that the party had not tried to destroy the Shiv Sena in the way he accused the BJP of doing.
The six MPs are facing show-cause notices from Shiv Sena, which has also urged the Speaker not to recognise any attempt by them to shift loyalties or seek separate seating arrangements beside the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha. The anti-defection framework makes the arithmetic crucial: a split by six of nine MPs may not by itself cross the two-thirds threshold required to avoid disqualification proceedings, leaving the rebels’ legal position dependent on how their move is framed and interpreted.
Thackeray’s comments were also his first direct response to the prospect of a second split in the party since 2022, when Eknath Shinde led a rebellion with most Sena MLAs and formed a government with the BJP. The Election Commission later recognised Shinde’s group as the official Shiv Sena and allotted it the bow-and-arrow symbol, while the Thackeray faction continued as Shiv Sena with the flaming torch symbol.
At the foundation day meeting, Thackeray said he was prepared to step down as party chief if workers had lost faith in him, but he would not allow the organisation to fall into the hands of “traitors”. He said he had carried the responsibility of the party for more than a decade and had resigned as chief minister in 2022 because he did not want any Shiv Sainik to question his conduct.
The Shinde camp has seized on the turmoil to argue that Thackeray’s leadership is losing ground. Eknath Shinde, now deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, told his supporters that the rebellion by MPs was “just a trailer” and indicated that more desertions could follow. His faction has presented itself as the custodian of Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva and Marathi identity plank, while accusing the Uddhav camp of drifting away from the Sena’s original political line after joining hands with the Congress and NCP in 2019.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah also sharpened the attack, saying only the Shinde-led Shiv Sena remained relevant and accusing Thackeray of sitting with the Congress. His remarks added national weight to a state-level battle that has become central to Maharashtra’s post-2024 political realignment.
