MUMBAI: Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and rejected cross-petitions filed by both Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions to disqualify each other’s MLAs.
“All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected. No MLA is being disqualified,” Narwekar said. Reacting to the decision, Uddhav Thackeray said it is contempt of the Supreme Court. He said that the apex court clearly stated that the legislative party cannot be called as a political party, but the Speaker has given a contrary order by accepting the Shinde faction as a political party.
“The main petition was about disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law for their anti-party activities, but here, not a single MLA got disqualified—neither from Shinde’s side nor our side. The Speaker himself has gone into multiple political parties; therefore, he could have failed to understand the anti-defections law and its procedure,” Thackeray said.
The Shiv Sena had split in June 2022 after Shinde rebelled against then CM Thackeray claiming the support of majority of MLAs. Thackeray resigned on June 29, 2022 without facing a floor test. Narwekar said the Shinde had the support of an overwhelming majority of 37 of 55 MLAs when rival factions emerged. “Therefore, he is the real Shiv Sena,” he added.
Narwekar said Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022, and Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorised whip. However, the Speaker rejected the Shinde faction’s petition to disqualify UBT group’s MLAs citing discrepancies in the way the whip was issued by Gogawale. He said Gogawale’s whip did not reach the MLAs and it was not issued in person. Whip sent through WhatsApp is not valid, he said.
Narvekar took 1 hour and 40 minutes to read out his order. He first tried to establish how the Thackeray-led Sena is not the real party. He said the 1999 party constitution submitted to the Election Commission was the valid constitution for deciding the issues and refused to accept the amended constitution of 2018.
Sena Constitution: 1999 vs 2018
The 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena made the Rashtriya Karyakarini (national executive) the supreme body, whereas the amended constitution of 2018 made Paksha Pramukh (president) as the top leader who will have the final say