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

NEW DELHI: Twelve Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena, including Maharashtra CM Eknath

Shinde

‘s son Shrikant Shinde, met with Speaker

Om Birla

on Tuesday and urged him to change the party’s floor leader in Lok Sabha.

This comes a day after rebel

Shiv Sena MPs

met

Birla

after the party’s floor leader,

Vinayak Raut

wrote the speaker a letter requesting him not to consider any representation from the opposing 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.

Incidentally, sources in the Shinde faction said the 12 MPs are set to form a separate group in the lower house.

Vinayak 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.

A leader from the Shinde faction said BJP is likely to allot two ministerial berths at the Centre to Sena MPs who join the group.

Last week, after 12 out of the 19 MPs urged

Uddhav Thackeray

to support NDA presidential poll candidate

Droupadi Murmu

, Uddhav had announced he had decided to support Murmu as she was a tribal woman candidate.

Sena leaders then believed that by backing Murmu, the party had bought time and averted a split among Sena MPs. Sena MP from Kolhapur Sanjay Mandlik said his workers have asked him to join the Shinde faction.

Mandlik is the first MP who has openly talked about his workers urging him to join the Shinde camp. Mandlik said Uddhav was an elder brother, but the views of his workers were important.

(With inputs from agencies)