Speaker says Shinde-led group real Shiv Sena; Uddhav Thackeray to approach SC

Mumbai: In a relief to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged in June 2022.

In his 105-minute long reading of the key points of the ruling, Rahul Narwekar also rejected Uddhav Thackeray faction’s petition to disqualify 16 Shiv Sena MLAs including Shinde.

As Narwekar finished reading the order, celebrations broke out among Chief Minister Shinde's supporters, who burst firecrackers, while Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray said their party will approach Supreme Court against the Speaker’s order.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar said Uddhav Thackeray will have to approach the apex court against the ruling of the Speaker, who gave precedence to the legislature party.

Narwekar said no party leadership can use provision of 10th schedule of Constitution for dissent or indiscipline within party.

In his order on disqualification petitions filed by Shinde-led Sena and the rival faction led by Uddhav Thackeray against each other's MLAs, 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.

“All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected. No MLA is being disqualified,” Narwekar said.

The Speaker also held that the Shiv Sena ‘pramukh’ (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party. He also did not accept the argument that the will of the party chief and the will of the party were synonymous.

The 1999 party constitution submitted to the Election Commission was the valid constitution for deciding the issues, and the Thackeray group's contention that the amended constitution of 2018 should be relied on was not acceptable, he added.

The 1999 constitution made the `Rashtriya Karyakarini' (national executive) the supreme body, he said.

“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.

Narwekar said he could not accept petitioner’s (Uddhav faction) contention that the 2018 party constitution should be relied upon.

Shiv Sena constitution of 1999, provided by the Election Commission is the real constitution, he said.

The Shinde group had an overwhelming majority of 37 out of 54 MLAs when the rival factions emerged in June 2022, Narwekar 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.