Eknath Shinde should resign as chief minister on moral grounds like I did: Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis should resign on moral grounds like he did last year.

Addressing a news conference shortly after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in last year’s Shiv Sena-centric political crisis in the state, Thackeray also slammed the then governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for calling upon him for the floor test.

“Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should resign on moral grounds like I did,” Thackeray said.

Thackeray said Speaker Rahul Narwekar has to consider Sunil Prabhu as the whip of his Shiv Sena while deciding on the disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs.

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the Maharashtra governor was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Thackeray to prove majority in the Assembly on June 30 last year but refused to order status quo ante, saying he did not face the floor test and resigned.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Shinde faction, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud held that House speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal".