There is speculation that Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde is trying to take all the MPs of the Uddhav group under his wing and for this Shinde has organized an operation. Which was named ‘Operation Tiger’. An operation by which Shinde, after the MLAs of the Uddhav group, is now going to break the MPs also. Mumbai’s local newspaper ‘Mumbai Mirror’ has claimed in one of its reports that late evening on Wednesday, i.e. April 8, Shinde held a secret meeting with 8 MPs of the Uddhav faction in Thane area. Which went on the whole night.
Now, as soon as the news of this meeting came out, not only Eknath Shinde, but all the MPs of the Uddhav group who allegedly attended that secret meeting, have issued a statement giving clarification and denying the meeting.
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This news does not end here, there is a catch here. The catch is that another news is floating in the political circles, that news is that BJP does not want Shinde to include the MPs of Uddhav group with itself and increase its strength. This is coming from the same BJP with whom Shinde had broken Shiv Sena and formed the government, the same BJP with whom Shinde is currently the power partner and is working as the Deputy Chief Minister. Some experts say that the real fight with Shiv Sena going on in the Supreme Court is also a big factor behind Shinde’s Operation Tiger. While some are calling it a preparation to bargain with BJP.
In such a situation, let us try to know what is going on in the politics of Maharashtra? What is Operation Tiger? What interest is Shinde trying to serve through Operation Tiger? How can NDA’s numbers game and the ongoing case in the Supreme Court be affected by this Operation Tiger? And what benefit is Shinde going to get from this? We will also try to know why BJP does not want Shinde’s Operation Tiger to be successful.
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Understand the current politics of Maharashtra
2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, it was from here that the entire politics of the state changed. As always, BJP and Shiv Sena contested the elections together. There are a total of 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, 145 is the majority figure. BJP got 105 seats and Shiv Sena 56 seats, taking the total to 161 seats. That means majority was obtained but government was not formed. The matter got stuck on CM face. Shiv Sena wanted Uddhav Thackeray to become the Chief Minister but BJP wanted to move ahead with Devendra Fadnavis as before. The alliance broke and Shiv Sena formed an alliance with Congress and Sharad Pawar’s party NCP. The new front got the name ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ but this alliance formed after the elections did not last long. In June 2022, about 40 out of 56 Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled and came to Assam under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. Uddhav government came in minority. Demand for floor test was raised but before that Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of Chief Minister.
Then, on the morning of 30 June 2022, suddenly an oath taking ceremony took place at the Raj Bhawan in Maharashtra. Eknath Shinde became the Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis became the Deputy Chief Minister. In the floor test, more than 40 MLAs of Shinde faction supported BJP and with the help of 106 BJP MLAs, majority was achieved.
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There was a big uproar here. In fact, the Uddhav faction demanded the Assembly Speaker to disqualify all the rebel MLAs under the 10th Schedule and there was a lot of uproar. The Uddhav faction also accused the Assembly Speaker of being biased. Later the matter reached the Election Commission. The Uddhav faction was calling itself the real Shiv Sena, while the Shinde faction was saying that most of the MLAs are with them, hence they are Shiv Sena. The Election Commission’s decision came on 17 February 2023, the Election Commission gave the status of the real Shiv Sena to the Shiden faction. The Shinde faction got the name of the party ‘Shiv Sena’ and the symbol of the party ‘Dhanush Baan’. Uddhav Thackeray named his group ‘Shiv Sena (UBT)’ i.e. Shiv Sena Uddhav Bala Saheb Thackeray and the symbol of the party was kept ‘Masala’.
Now the time has come for 2024 assembly elections. By this time Sharad Pawar’s party NCP had also been torn into two. Ajit Pawar had parted ways with his MLAs.
Two alliances were facing each other in the 2024 elections. One was Mahavikas Aghadi. Which included Shiv Sena Uddhav faction, Congress and NCP Sharad Pawar faction. The second one was Mahayuti alliance. Which included BJP, Shiv Sena Shinde faction and NCP Ajit Pawar faction. This Mahayuti alliance won the elections. BJP won 132 seats, Shiv Sena Shinde 57 and NCP Ajit Pawar won 41 seats. Total 230 seats which was much more than the majority but now the situation was different. BJP was a big party. This time he was not dependent only on Shinde group to form the government. Eknath Shinde had to leave the post of Chief Minister. Devendra Fadnavis from BJP once again became the Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde had to be content with the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Lok Sabha elections were also held in the year 2024. Of the total 48 seats in Maharashtra, 9 were won by BJP, 7 by Shinde faction and 1 by NCP’s Ajit Pawar faction.
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Till now the situation remains the same, the numbers are same but there are reports that Eknath Shinde wants to change these numbers.
How does Shinde want to change these numbers?
Actually, Shinde faction currently has 7 MPs and there are reports that Eknath Shinde wants to break the 9 MPs of Uddhav faction and bring them to his side and for this he has started an Operation Tiger. On April 10, Mumbai’s local newspaper Mumbai Mirror published a big update regarding this Operation Tiger. Mumbai Mirror claimed that late evening on Wednesday, April 8, Eknath Shinde’s car suddenly got separated from his convoy and went on a different route. The vehicle reached the Voltas Company area of Thane. Here Shinde held a meeting with 8 MPs of the Uddhav group. Which continued till the next morning.
Who was involved in this meeting?
According to Mumbai Mirror report, Thackeray faction MPs Arvind Sawant, Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Bhausaheb Vakchore and Rajbhau Waje physically attended the meeting. While MP Omraje Nimbalkar and another MP joined the meeting through video call. In this meeting, these MPs were allegedly offered to join the Shinde faction.
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Now as soon as this news was out, not only Eknath Shinde but all the MPs whose names have been taken in this report, one by one they came to the media and gave statements and completely denied the meeting.
Why does Shinde want to have these MPs in his fold?
There could be two possible reasons behind this. First, the case going on in the Supreme Court. On 17 February 2023, even though the Election Commission considered the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and gave them the name and symbol of the party, the Uddhav Thackeray faction did not stop its fight. Uddhav Thackeray group has moved the Supreme Court against this and possibly a decision in this matter may come in 2 months. Experts are speculating that last time the Election Commission had given the status of real Shiv Sena to Shinde faction on the basis of voting of MLAs. Shinde faction had more MLAs but now the situation has changed. However, Shinde group still has more MLAs. Whose number is 57 MLAs. While the Uddhav faction has about 20 MLAs, the Shinde faction is lagging behind in the number of MPs. Shinde faction has 7 MPs, while Uddhav faction has 9 MPs. Therefore, experts are speculating that it will gain the upper hand in the battle between real and fake in the Supreme Court. Therefore, Eknath Shinde and Uddhav are trying to break the group’s MPs and bring them into their group.
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Experts also suggest another possible reason. That or NDA got majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but BJP was not in a position to form the government alone. The majority in the Lok Sabha was 272 but BJP had got 240 seats. Although all the NDA allies had collectively brought together 293 seats, there was some uncertainty regarding two parties, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU. After BJP, they had the highest number of MPs. TDP had 16 MPs and JDU had 12 MPs. However, both the parties stood with BJP without any problem and the position of both these parties increased in the NDA component.
Now if Eknath Shinde takes 9 MPs of Uddhav group into his fold, then the number game of NDA will change. The number of MPs of Shinde faction will increase to 16 and Shinde faction will become the second largest party in NDA. Strength will increase in Delhi. Eknath Shinde will get two benefits from this. First, he will be able to ask for more posts in the Central Cabinet and second, Eknath Shinde will stake his claim to become the CM of Maharashtra again through Delhi’s numbers game and will negotiate back with BJP.
That means Shinde wants to hit many targets with one stone. If, after merging the MPs of the Uddhav group, the number of its MPs doubles, then first of all it will gain the upper hand in the real Shiv Sena case in the Supreme Court. Then secondly, since NDA is the second largest party, it will ask for more portfolio in the Central Cabinet and thirdly, it will again stake claim to the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Three shots with one stone.
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However, this is not easy for Eknath Shinde. When she broke Shiv Sena, she had the support of BJP but this time she herself is seen standing against BJP.
Since when is there discussion of Operation Tiger?
Operation Tiger is not being discussed right now. There has been discussion about this operation for the last one month. On March 18, 2026, Eknath Shinde went on a three-day visit to Delhi. Where he had asked for time to meet Amit Shah. Experts claimed that Shinde had gone to Delhi to seek permission to start Operation Tiger but he could not meet Amit Shah. After which Eknath Shinde met Prime Minister Narendra but he did not get the support of BJP in such an operation.
After this Eknath Shinde became calm but news on Operation Tiger kept coming intermittently. Now a new sensation has arisen, after the report of Mumbai Mirror. In which it has been directly claimed that Eknath Shinde has held a confidential meeting with the MPs of Uddhav group in Thane area from the night of 8th April to the morning of 9th April. Although everyone has denied it.
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