Continued from page 1

Amid reports of "Operation Tiger" being underway to engineer a split in the Sena (UBT), the party has issued a whip directing all its Lok Sabha MPs to attend a meeting of the parliamentary party in Delhi on Thursday at 11 am. The whip was issued by MP Anil Desai, the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha.

Sena (UBT) functionaries said party chief Uddhav Thackeray may also travel to Delhi in an attempt to pacify the MPs and could attend the parliamentary party meeting on Thursday.

Late on Tuesday, Sena (UBT) parliamentary party leader Arvind Sawant wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, requesting him not to entertain any claim seeking recognition of a separate group or a merger with another political party by the defecting MPs. Sawant said the party's claim that Shiv Sena (UBT) represents the "real Shiv Sena" remains sub judice before the Supreme Court and that his letter was being written without prejudice to that claim.

He was responding to reports that certain MPs elected on the Sena (UBT)'s symbol had either approached, or were contemplating approaching, the Speaker seeking recognition as a separate group or merger with another political party within the Lok Sabha.