12 rebel Shiv Sena MPs meet Speaker, demand change of floor leader

New Delhi: Twelve Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde, met Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday and requested him to change the party's floor leader in the Lower House of Parliament.

The rebel Shiv Sena MPs met Birla a day after the party's floor leader, Vinayak Raut, gave a letter to the speaker, asking him not to entertain any representation from the rival faction.

"Twelve Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena met Speaker Om Birla and requested him to appoint Rahul Shewale in place of Vinayak Raut as the party's floor leader," Hemant Godse, one of the 12 MPs of the Shinde faction who met Birla, said.

Raut, in his letter submitted to the speaker on Monday night, had made it clear that he was the "duly appointed" leader of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party and Rajan Vichare was the chief whip.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtra minister Ramdas Kadam on Tuesday alleged that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was breaking the Shiv Sena and he had given a proof of this to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.
The Sena was "systematically weakened" by Pawar. Some MLAs had expressed concern over it but Thackeray was not ready to part ways with Pawar, Kadam claimed while talking to a TV channel.
However, NCP's chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase dismissed Kadam's remarks, claiming the BJP was behind the split in the Shiv Sena and that the rebel leaders were trying to divert the attention from it by targeting Pawar.
On Monday, Kadam in a letter to Thackeray tendered his resignation as "Shiv Sena leader".
Shiv Sena president and former state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday evening announced that Kadam was sacked for indulging in anti-party activities.
Kadam was later "reinstated" as leader by the rebel Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, comprising the Sena, NCP and Congress, collapsed last month after Shinde and 39 other Sena MLAs revolted against the party.

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