Centre grants 'Y' security to 12 rebel Shiv Sena MPs

New Delhi, July 19: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday accorded Y security cover to 12 rebel Shiv Sena MPs who are set to form a separate group.

They include Shrirang Barne, Bhavana Gawali, Rajendra Gavit, Hemant Godse, Prataprao Jadhav, Sadashiv Lokhande, Sanjay Mandlik, Dhairyasheel Mane, Hemant Patil, Rahul Shewale, Shrikant Shinde and Krupal Tumane.

Meanwhile, all the 12 MPs are expected to be in Delhi today. The MPs will form a separate group in the Lok Sabha and meet Speaker Om Birla to submit a formal letter.

The move comes weeks after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena witnessed a vertical split with 40 of the MLAs joining the faction headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The Shiv Sena has 19 MPs in Lok Sabha, including 18 from Maharashtra.

In another development, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde who anointed himself as the chief leader of the Shiv Sena also announced a new national executive of the party comprising the rebels.

Shinde however decided that Uddhav Thackeray would continue as the president of the party in the new national executive.

This move to retain Uddhav Thackeray is a clear indicator that Shinde is sticking to his guns that it has not split from the Shiv Sena, but represents the true ideology of Hindutva.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court would hear a batch of petitions filed by the Shiv Sena factions. The new move gains significance because 12 of the 19 Sena MPs have supported Shinde's move to dissolve the national executive and reconstitute it.