MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday took a dig at Dharashiv MP Omraje Nimbalkar, who defected to the ruling Shiv Sena along with five others last week. Without naming him, he said that Nimbalkar was aware that the NDA needed six MPs in order to stay outside the purview of the anti-defection law, and had delayed his going only to increase his rate.Mumbai, India. 19, 2026 - Uddhav Thackeray, Chief of Shiv Sena (UBT), addressed party members at Shanmukhanand Hall in Mumbai on the party’s 60th foundation day. Aditya Thackeray, Yuva Sena Chief, along with Sanjay Raut, Anil Desai, Arvind Sawant, Rajabhau Vaze, and other senior leaders, were also present. Mumbai, India. 19, 2026. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)Thackeray, who was touring Dharashiv and Parbhani, the constituency of another defector Sanjay Jadhav, said that during a recent meeting called at Matoshree, Nimbalkar was present in online mode, saying that his son was unwell in Pune. “But when I asked him, he said that everything was okay and that’s when I first smelt a rat,” he said.Last weekend, the Sena (UBT) chief visited the Mumbai North-East constituency from where MP Sanjay Dina Patil defected, while this weekend he went with his son Aaditya and MP Sanjay Raut to Parbhani and Dharashiv. Raut claimed that Nimbalkar had bought property worth ₹500 crore and was worried since the enforcement directorate had begun probing the matter. “He sold himself for ₹100 crore,” he said. “Nearly 100 Sainiks said they were willing to sell a kidney to collect money so that he stayed back but he didn’t. Now people won’t allow him to walk on the streets.”Speaking at the rally in Dharashiv, Thackeray said that the NDA needed a two-thirds majority to pass its bills and was thus pilfering MPs from rival parties. “From where does the money come to charter so many flights in order to steal MPs?” he asked. “PM Modi has asked people to observe austerity measures and not buy gold, but here MPs are being routinely bought.”On the issue of money being stolen from the Ram Temple coffers, he said it was a treacherous act that betrayed all Hindus. “This is the new BJP—the Babar Janata Party,” he said. “That Babar demolished the temple, this Babar Janata Party is looting the temple.”On Saturday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Thackeray travelled in the same flight from Mumbai to Nagpur. Speaking about this, Thackeray claimed that Fadnavis looked “helpless” and low on confidence. “Like Shivraj Singh Chauhan was sidelined despite the BJP winning in Madhya Pradesh only because of him, Fadnavis too is on the way to being sidelined,” he said. “The operation to steal six Sena (UBT) UBT MPs is not Operation Tiger but Operation Devendra, carried out to cut him down to size. Whoever becomes strong enough to become a PM candidate is sidelined by the BJP.”