India, June 18 -- The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena's move to get six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs to switch sides took a turn on Wednesday, with the rebel MPs informing the Lok Sabha speaker that they have formed a separate group and plan to merge with the Sena. Even as the Sena stepped up its efforts to get the group to cross over, the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp fought back to avert a split in the party's Lok Sabha unit.

The Sena (UBT)'s group leader in the Lok Sabha, Arvind Sawant, on Wednesday issued a whip, asking all nine Lok Sabha MPs to attend a meeting of the party's parliamentary unit at 11 am on Thursday in New Delhi. Sawant also wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla urning him not to recognise any group of Sena (UBT) MPs.

This follows cla...