India
oi-PTI
Shiv
Sena,
led
by
Maharashtra
Chief
Minister
Eknath
Shinde,
has
sacked
Sanjay
Raut
as
the
leader
of
its
parliamentary
party
and
appointed
Lok
Sabha
MP
Gajanan
Kirtikar
as
his
successor.
In
a
letter
to
Lok
Sabha
Speaker
Om
Birla
and
Rajya
Sabha
Chairman
Jagdeep
Dhankhar,
Shinde,
who
is
chief
leader
of
the
Shiv
Sena,
said
Kirtikar
has
been
appointed
as
the
leader
of
the
Shiv
Sena
Parliamentary
Party.
Shiv
Sena
leaders
on
Thursday
felicitated
Kirtikar
at
the
parliamentary
party
office
located
on
the
third
floor
of
the
Parliament
building.
Of
the
18
Shiv
Sena
members
in
the
Lok
Sabha,
four
have
their
loyalties
with
Uddhav
Thackeray,
who
lost
control
of
the
party
to
Shinde.
Eknath
Shinde
had
split
the
Shiv
Sena
last
year
accusing
Thackeray
of
compromising
with
the
core
ideals
of
the
party
and
joining
hands
with
arch
rivals
Congress
and
NCP
to
form
the
government
in
Maharashtra.
Last
month,
the
Election
Commission
recognised
the
Shinde-led
faction
as
the
real
Shiv
Sena
and
allocated
the
name
and
the
poll
symbol
to
it.
The
Shiv
Sena
has
three
members
in
the
Rajya
Sabha
–
Sanjay
Raut,
Anil
Desai
and
Priyanka
Chaturvedi
who
owe
their
allegiance
to
Uddhav
Thackeray.
Story first published: Thursday, March 23, 2023, 20:37 [IST]