SHINDE EYES NEW TARGETS

On April 13, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) got its latest shock when Sanjana Ghadi, who was made the party spokesperson just days before, joined the rival Shiv Sena led by deputy CM Eknath Shinde along with husband and former Mumbai corporator Sanjay Ghadi.

- By Dhaval S. Kulkarni

But then, this was only the latest in a series of defections that have bedevilled the SS (UBT).

Former MLAs Rajan Salvi, Subhash Bane, Sanjay Kadam, Sujit Minchekar and ex-MLC Dushyant Chaturvedi are some of the big names who have shifted camps. In Mumbai, influential ex-corporators Rajul Patel and Raju Pednekar are also now on Shinde’s side, as is Nandakumar Ghodele, the former mayor of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad). The Shinde Sena now claims the loyalty of over half of the Shiv Sena’s 97 corporators in the outgoing Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose term ended in 2022. Meanwhile, reports of an ‘Operation Tiger’ to wean away some of the Shiv Sena UBT’s nine Lok Sabha MPs and 20 MLAs are doing the rounds. The presence of certain UBT Sena MPs at events hosted by Shinde’s men in New Delhi has added further grist to the rumour mills.