Amit Shah Tease Thackeray: “There is only One Shiv Sena Led by Eknath Shinde,” Congress Attacks Modi

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 20: With the Shiv Sena (UBT) faction virtually decimated, the union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday teased the former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray stating that only one Shiv Sena existed and there were no “factions” left now.

Addressing a public gathering in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Mr Shah said only one Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. He said earlier people had to say ‘Shiv Sena-Shinde faction’ after Eknath Shinde ji’s name but now no faction remains anymore… there is only one Shiv Sena.

The remark from Amit Shah came as six of nine Lok Sabha MPs of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) skipped a parliamentary meeting in Delhi, and submitted a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking to form a separate group. As reports suggest, a merger into the Shinde-led Shiv Sena is expected to be formalised soon, and thus support to the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Today, on this sacred land of Maharashtra, where the abode of Mata Ambabai is here, in this Kolhapur, we have all gathered for a very noble cause. Where Mata Ambabai herself resides in hundreds, Karvirnagar is today having the work of renovation and corridor construction of Mata Ambabai’s temple being carried out by the Maharashtra government,” Shah said.

The Union Home Minister emphasised that this cultural renaissance was taking place under the vision of Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi, coined by Mr Modi.

“In Maharashtra, all Jyotirlingas and Shakti Peeth are being redeveloped and revitalised. This is a matter of pride for all of us,” Amit Shah said.

This comes amid rebellion buzz in the Sena (UBT) faction led by Uddhav Thackeray. Amid ‘Operation Tiger’, a mass defection of UBT parliamentarians to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has pushed the party to the brink, manifesting in open hostility, missing MPs, and threats of legal action.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has issued a fresh show cause notice to its absentee MPs, threatening disqualification. Party’s Chief Whip in Lok Sabha, Anil Desai, has issued a formal ‘Show Cause’ notice to the absentee MPs.

They have been given a strict 24-hour deadline to provide a written explanation for their behaviour. The notice carries a stern warning. If the MPs fail to respond within the stipulated time, the party will assume they have voluntarily given up their membership. Consequently, they will face action under the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (the Anti-Defection Law).

The crisis reached a flashpoint on Thursday in New Delhi, when a mandatory parliamentary party meeting convened by party leadership saw a stark display of division. Out of the party’s nine Lok Sabha MPs, only three–Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, and Rajabhau Waje–attended the meeting called by party whips. The remaining six–Nagesh Aashtikar, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar, and Bhausaheb Wakchaure–remained conspicuously absent. They have reportedly also written a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting for treating them as a separate group with the ultimate idea to join the Shinde faction.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday lashed out at Mr Modi for “not taking up” with U.S. President Donald Trump the killing of three India seafarers in an attack by American forces. The Congress alleged that for Mr Modi “PR first” was his mantra and not “nation first.” The Opposition party also cited the responses of the former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh during the diplomatic row surrounding MEA official Devyani Khobragade in 2013 and Indira Gandhi to argue that previous Congress governments had given primacy to nation’s interest when speaking with America.

In the context of the Modi-Trump bilateral meeting and the public remarks they made on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, the Congress’s media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, claimed that PM Modi sat with his gaze lowered before Mr Trump.

“He sat huddled on the sofa, addressing Trump as ‘excellency.’ It was truly embarrassing. It looked as though a company agent were speaking to the boss; we had never seen a prime minister like this before,” Mr Khera said at a press conference.

The U.S. killed three Indian sailors, yet Trump did not even express regret because Narendra Modi sat there “meekly,” content merely with the praise he was receiving, the Congress leader said. “Narendra Modi kept giggling but failed to ask Trump a single question about the killing of Indian sailors, simply because his skin had been complimented.

“(External Affairs Minister) S Jaishankar returns after being reprimanded by Marco Rubio. Narendra Modi returns after hearing praise for his skin. It is deeply disheartening to see the government of the world’s largest democracy return from the global stage having suffered such indignity,” Mr Khera said.

This is not “nation first’ but “PR first,” the Congress leader asserted. The message Manmohan Singh conveyed to the U.S. as the Prime Minister regarding the Khobragade case had astonished the entire world, Mr Khera said. It was the UPA government that succeeded in placing Pakistan on the FATF ‘grey list’, and yet today, Modi’s “friend” Trump invites Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir to dinner following Operation Sindoor, he said.

Mr Khera further said in 1986, Voice of America wanted to set up a transmitter in Sri Lanka, right next to the Indian coast, but Rajiv Gandhi did not allow it to happen. “It took us 200 years to drive out the British, but in just 12 years, Narendra Modi has brought back servitude,” Mr Khera alleged.

“When Modi and Trump sat together, three things happened — the US renamed the US Indo-Pacific Command back to US Pacific Command; the US depicted the PoK region as part of Pakistan on a map; and the US State Department suspended EB-2 and EB-5 visas for Indians in the July 2026 visa bulletin,” he said.

In his meeting with Trump, Modi did not raise the issue of the killing of Indian sailors, discuss the one-sided U.S. trade deal or bring up the US president’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ ceasefire claims, Mr Khera said.

“Trump stated that if anyone attacked India while Modi was the prime minister, the US would come to its aid. This statement made it sound as though we were an American colony… whereas India has won numerous wars on its own strength,” the Congress leader said.