India, June 21 -- The Shiv Sena (UBT) has issued a second notice to the six MPs who skipped the meeting of the party's parliamentary wing last Thursday, asking them to submit a written explanation in 24 hours. Party chief whip Anil Desai sent the notice on Friday, saying that if no explanation was submitted, the party would assume that the MPs had voluntarily given up their membership.

While sources from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena have claimed that the MPs have submitted a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, asking for their group to be merged with it, neither the MPs nor the Shiv Sena have announced this. Even the Lok Sabha speaker had not made any announcement regarding the status of the six MPs till Saturday evening. However, S...