Shiv Sena Appoints Rajan Vichare As Chief Whip In Lok Sabha, Replaces Bhavana Gawali

With this decision, the possibility of conflict in the parliamentary party of Shiv Sena has also increased.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut during press conference (File photo: getty)

New Delhi: Rajan Vichare has been nominated as Shiv Sena's chief whip in the Lok Sabha by the Uddhav Thackeray-led party replacing MP Bhavana Gawali, said leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday. "It is to inform you that Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party has nominated Rajan Vichare, MP (LS) as the chief whip in Lok Sabha in place of Bhavana Gawali, MP (LS), with immediate effect," Raut said in a letter to Parliamentary Affairs minister Pralhad Joshi.

With this decision, the possibility of conflict in the parliamentary party of Shiv Sena has also increased. 

Raut is the leader of the Shiv Sena parliamentary party. Gawali represents the Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra. She is one of the Shiv Sena MPs who suggested that the Shiv Sena should re-align with the BJP amid the rebellion led by Eknath Shinde.

The Shiv Sena has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and three in the Rajya Sabha.

Earlier in the day, rebel Shiv Sena MLA Gulabrao Patil had asserted that 12 out of 18 Sena MPs would soon join the Shinde-led faction.

A day earlier, Shiv Sena Lok Sabha part Rahul Shewale had encouraged Thackeray to request that party MPs support NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, thinking of her as tribal roots and commitment to the social area.

Whips assumed a critical part in the new political crisis which finished with the breakdown of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government and Eknath Shinde taking oath as the new chief minister.

The groups led by Shinde and Thackeray had given whips for casting a ballot during the appointment of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the trust vote of the Shinde-led government. The validity of the whips is being contested by one another.

(With PTI Inputs)