Shiv Sena (UBT) is in the throes of a crisis as six out of its nine Lok Sabha members -- Sanjay Dina Patil, Sanjay Deshmukh, Sanjay Jadhav, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar and Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar -- are likely to join the Shinde-led Sena. None of the six dissident MPs were present at the rally in NESCO

“This is just the trailer; the movie is still to come,” he declared. Addressing party workers, Shinde used sharp rhetoric to hit back at opposition leaders who have been targeting him over the rumoured defection. He said people had been asking what he would say and who would take the stage

“Look, this tiger stands right in front of you today!” he thundered. He added that he had been watching for the past couple of days as “a few dogs bark daily,” remarking that dogs bark in packs but a lion walks alone

Without directly naming Uddhav Thackeray or Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, Shinde responded to the UBT faction’s warning of an “Operation Tudava” (Operation Stomp). Raut had threatened that party workers would “stomp” rebel lawmakers if they entered their constituencies. Shinde mocked Raut’s political stature and issued a fierce open challenge to the UBT leadership

He said some people had claimed they would perform an operation on wolves, but mocked that “he is just a compounder. How can a compounder perform an operation? Over here, Shrikant Shinde (his son) is the real doctor. Even though I am not a doctor, I still know how to operate. And to perform an operation, you need the heart of a tiger, not a wolf.”