Two Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction on Sunday said that they will join the rival group led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Deccan Herald reported.This came amid speculation that six of the Uddhav Sena’s nine members in the Lower House of Parliament would defect.Besides Hingoli MP Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Omprakash Nimbalkar from Osmanabad who confirmed on Sunday that they will join the Shinde-led faction, the four others are Mumbai North-East MP Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim, Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani and Bhausaheb Wakchaure from Shirdi, the newspaper reported.All six rebel MPs are expected to formally merge with the Shinde-led faction on Monday, India Today reported.Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the act of splitting the Uddhav Sena in the Lok Sabha as an “operation”, and said that it had been successful.Shinde said that “we don’t leave operations incomplete, we complete what we take up”.Ashtikar said that he was “not upset with anyone” and that faction leader Uddhav Thackeray had supported him.He claimed that while he had “not gone anywhere” until Thursday, when “what was being said [by Thackeray supporters] crossed limits and so much distrust was expressed, I felt there was no point in staying any longer”, he said on social media.The Hingoli MP said that “it is difficult to work without being in power”.He added that the voters had elected him with expectations and that it was “also a major reason” for joining the Shinde Sena.Omprakash Nimbalkar said that he did not face problems with the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department, but had decided to switch sides “to take up the cause of common people”, the Deccan Herald reported. He thanked the Thackeray family for supporting him so far.On Saturday, a trial court acquitted eight persons, including former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Padamsinh Patil, in the 2006 murder of former MLA Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver. The prosecution had alleged that Patil orchestrated the killing of the Congress leader as he considered him a political threat.Pawanraje Nimbalkar is the father of Omprakash Nimbalkar.The Osmanabad MP said that after the judgement on Saturday, Fadnavis and Shinde had spoken with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and it was decided that the CBI will challenge the acquittal of Patil in the Bombay High Court, the Deccan Herald reported.On Friday, Uddhav Thackeray offered an apology to voters who had elected the MPs who were rebelling.He said that he was willing to resign as the party chief if the workers did not have faith in him. However, he said that he had not lost his resolve to fight.On Thursday, the six MPs had skipped a meeting of the Uddhav Sena’s parliamentary party. The meeting was attended by the other three MPs of the faction and its lone Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut.On Friday, the party issued notices to the six MPs and gave them seven days to respond, failing which it may take disciplinary action.The meeting was held a day after the Uddhav Sena alleged that its MPs were being offered Rs 15 crore each to join the Shinde Sena.The Shiv Sena had split in June 2022 after Shinde and 39 MLAs backing him rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government that also comprised the undivided Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.After more than a week of political drama, Shinde had been sworn in as the chief minister with the backing of the BJP. He became the deputy chief minister after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance comprising the Shinde Sena, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP, retained power in the 2024 Assembly polls.Edited by Sara Varghese.