MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday won the first round of his fight against the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena in the state Assembly when his government managed to get the ruling coalition’s candidate elected as Speaker.
The government is scheduled to take its confidence vote on Monday. BJP’s candidate Rahul Narvekar won by 57 votes against Maha Vikas Aghadi’s joint candidate Rajan Salvi.
Narvekar was supported by the Shinde group. He got 167 votes against Salvi’s 107. SP and MIM members abstained. Besides, seven NCP MLAs were absent, including Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, who are in jail. Two members each from BJP and Congress failed to show up.
Thackeray’s Sena asked acting speaker Narhari Zirwal to take on a record that 39 Sena MLAs in the Shinde camp cross-voted against the party whip.
Parallelly, the Shinde camp put on record that 16 Sena MLAs crossed-voted. Deepak Kesarkar, the spokesperson of the Shinde camp, said its chief whip Bharat Gogawale had asked all Sena MLAs to vote for Narvekar, who has become the youngest Speaker of Maharashtra.
Narvekar has reinstated Shinde as Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.
Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
In a statement late Sunday night, Narvekar said the Maharashtra Legislature secretariat had received a letter from the Shinde-led group on June 22 objecting to his removal by Thackeray as the group leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party.
After discussing the legalities of the matter, the Speaker has rejected the appointment of Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the group leader of the legislative unit of the party, a letter by Narvekar said.
The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction comprising 16 MLAs who will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote.
If these 16 MLAs refuse to follow the whip, they face disqualification.
Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena chief MP Arvind Sawant said his party will challenge this "unconstitutional" decision in court.
"Former Secretary General of Lok Sabha P D T Acharya has given directives that the party leader (chief) has the right to appoint the group leader of the legislative unit of that party. How can you say that (Eknath Shinde) is the (legislative) party leader?"
"We will challenge this decision in court. This is highly unfortunate. The decision is taken on Sunday late night which speaks volumes about how it must have been taken," said Sawant.
He alleged that the decision amounts to trampling the Constitution and democratic norms.
"The BJP is marching towards autocracy," Sawant added.
Ousted Shiv Sena group leader Ajay Chaudhary said the new Speaker did not even conduct any hearing over the objections of both sides.
"When my name was proposed for the Shiv Sena group leader's post, it was signed by Shiv Sena MLAs Dada Bhuse and Sanjay Rathod. They both later joined the Shinde camp. How can the Speaker ignore these facts? When my appointment was recognised by acting speaker Narhari Zirwal, how come the newly-appointed Speaker Rahul Narvekar can intervene?" he asked.
Constitutional experts said since both camps have complained against cross-voting, the Speaker will hear the matter and give his verdict.
“Only after that can they can approach a court against the Speaker’s decision, if necessary,”
Sawant also wondered whether the proper Constitutional procedure was followed to elect the new Speaker and said questions are raised regarding how the Shiv Sena rebel faction is trying to appropriate the original party.
"The dispute between the 39 rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena and 16 legislators who stayed with the original party will be resolved only in the Supreme Court. There are several questions of legitimacy the way the Eknath Shinde government came to power (in alliance with BJP) and carried out the Speaker's election. Did the entire procedure take place within the framework of the Constitution?" Sawant, also chief spokesperson of Shiv Sena, questioned.
He said the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had even issued a whip (asking all the MLAs to vote in favour of Salvi) but the rebel MLAs did not budge.
"We have complained against them to the Speaker," he said.
Commenting on Shinde-led Sena MLAs' stand, Sawant said, "This may be the first such case wherein the rebels are calling their faction as the original party."
Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the party, had issued separate whips to the party legislators to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the state Assembly Speaker's election.
(With PTI Inputs)