In a major setback to Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday ruled that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction is the “real Shiv Sena”.
The Speaker also rejected petitions filed by both the factions seeking disqualification of each other's MLAs.
Narwekar held that the Shinde-led faction was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged on June 21, 2022. The group had an overwhelming majority of 37 out of 54 MLAs, he noted.
Also, the Shiv Sena pramukh' (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party, Narwekar said.
“The 2018 amended constitution of Shiv Sena cannot be considered as valid as it's not in the records of the Election Commission of India. As per Supreme Court orders, I can not delve into any other factor on which the constitution is valid. As per records, I am relying on the 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena as the valid constitution,” the Speaker said.
As per the ruling, 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.
“All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected. No MLA is being disqualified,” Narwekar said.
He said as per the evidence and records before him, no elections were held in the party in in 2013 and 2018.
“However, I as the speaker exercising jurisdiction under the 10th schedule have limited jurisdiction and cannot go beyond the record of the ECI as available on the website and hence I have not considered this aspect while determining the relevant leadership structure.
“Thus, given the above conclusions, I find that the leadership structure of Shiv Sena reflected in the letter dated 27th February 2018 available on the website of the ECI is the relevant leadership structure which has to be taken into account for the purpose of determining which faction is the real political party…,” said the Speaker.
Thackeray faction to move SC
Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray said their party will approach Supreme Court against the Speaker's order.
“This is BJP's conspiracy and this was their dream that one day they would finish Balasaheb Thackeray's Shiv Sena. But Shiv Sena won't finish with this one decision. We will go to the Supreme Court,” Raut said.
After the rebellion in June 2022, Shinde went on to become the chief minister with the BJP's support. In July last year, the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party joined his government.
On May 11 last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Shinde would continue to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra while stating that it could not reinstate the earlier Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government headed by Uddhav Thackeray as the latter chose to resign without facing a floor test in the wake of Shinde's rebellion.
However, the apex court had questioned then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's action of calling for a floor test in order to solve an intra-party dispute.
The Election Commission gave the Shiv Sena' name and bow and arrow' symbol to the Shinde-led faction, while naming the group headed by Thackeray as Shiv Sena (UBT) with its symbol being a flaming torch.
Assembly polls in Maharashtra are due in the second half of 2024.
(With inputs from agencies)
