Amid speculation that a Shiv Sena MP may defect to the United Progressive Alliance during the trust vote, senior party leader Manohar Joshi on Monday said they did not have any clue about the wherabouts of one of its 12 Lok Sabha members.
"Except one MP, all other 11 were present in Parliament. We are not in contact with him and it is not possible to say about his whereabouts," Joshi said.
However, Joshi said it did not mean that the MP has defected and that all the 12 lawmakers would vote against the Government during the confidence motion tomorrow as per the party directive.
Shiv Sena MP Tukaram Renge Patil had failed to turn up at the party's parliamentary group meeting in Delhi on Sunday evening raising speculation about his absence.
Renge Patil represents Parbhani constituency in Maratwada region in Maharashtra.
On the issue of continuance of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee after the Communist Party of India-Marxist reportedly asked him to quit the post, Joshi said he should have put in papers keeping in mind the decision of his party.
"The party has every right to ask him to resign. After all, it was the party who selected him for the post. If the party does not want him, he should resign," he said.
Asked whether the opposition has the numbers to topple the government, he noted that it was "difficult to say now."
