Naik eyes Shinde bastion, Uday Samant retaliates

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena is steadily picking off leaders from the rival Shiv Sena (UBT) camp, deepening the crisis for a party struggling to hold its ground.

- Shailesh Gaikwad and Yogesh Naik

MUMBAI: On Saturday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) lost another leader, Subhash Bane, a second former MLA in almost as many days. Bane, a former legislator from the Konkan, crossed over to the Sena at a rally held by Shinde in Ratnagiri, to thank the people for contributing to his party's victory. Bane joined the Sena along with his son Rohan, who was the Sena (UBT)'s Sangameshwar tehsil chief, and a few other local leaders. Speaking at the rally, Shinde said, "In the Konkan, our strike rate was 95%. They (Thackerays) must introspect on why people are leaving them."

Shinde chose his words carefully for the Sena (UBT) has been fast losing loyalists to the Shinde camp, in a campaign being dubbed as 'Operation Tiger'. Demoralised ever since its dismal showing in the assembly elections last year, the Sena (UBT) had three MLAs in the Konkan even after Shinde split the party in 2022. However, it won only a single seat in last year's assembly election. One of the two MLAs who lost the election, Rajan Salvi, joined the Sena on Thursday, while Subhash Bane hopped onto the Shinde bandwagon on Saturday.