Eknath Shinde faction real Shiv Sena: Maharashtra Speaker in setback to Uddhav Thackeray
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, January 10
More than 18 months after a vertical split in the Shiv Sena led to the fall of Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday ruled that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of the party (the one that engineered the split) was the real Shiv Sena.
Adjudicating cross petitions filed by the Shinde faction and the Sena group led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray for disqualification of each other’s MLAs under the anti-defection law, Narwekar said the Shinde faction had an overwhelming majority of 37 out of 55 MLAs when the party split in June 2022 and was the real political party on the day a parallel faction emerged.
What the ruling said
- Eknath Shinde faction had an overwhelming majority of 37 out of 55 MLAs when the party split in June 2022
- It was the real political party when parallel faction emerged, ruled the Speaker
The split had led to Shinde joining hands with the BJP to form the government and being anointed Chief Minister. Narwekar was elected Speaker of the new Assembly at the time and all cross petitions by both factions demanding disqualification of MLAs came to him.
The matter then went to the Supreme Court which ruled in May 2023 that while it could not restore the MVA government because then CM Uddhav had resigned without facing a floor test, former Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was not right in calling a floor test assuming the MVA had lost the majority. The SC had also upheld the power of the Speaker to adjudicate the cross petitions. Meanwhile, the Election Commission gave the Shiv Sena name and party symbol bow and arrow to the Shinde group, while Uddhav’s party was called Shiv Sena UBT with a flaming torch as its symbol.
Will move SC: Uddhav
The foundation on which the order stands is wrong. This is a murder of democracy…will move SC.— Uddhav Thackeray
In his 105-minute reading of the principal points of his ruling today, Narwekar dismissed disqualification petitions filed by both factions. To determine which faction was the real party, he relied on Shiv Sena’s 1999 constitution available with the Election Commission rather than the 2018 version which Uddhav sought to be relied on.
The 1999 version makes the national executive of the Shiv Sena the supreme decision-making body as against the party president (as per the 2018 version).
“Under the Constitution of the Shiv Sena available with the EC, it was clear that all points favoured the CM (Eknath Shinde),” said Narwekar, who went by the strength of the legislature party of the split faction to decide which party was real.
“From my analysis, I hold that the Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when rival factions emerged on June 21, 2022,” Narwekar said.
He also ruled that Sunil Prabhu of Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022, and Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorised whip which means the whip issued by Shinde faction prevailed.
Narwekar had in July last, upon election as Speaker, named Gogawale as whip, removing Prabhu. He stood by that same decision today.
Speaking at a press conference, Uddhav said the Speaker’s decision was a murder of democracy, and his party would move the Supreme Court against it.
NCP leader Sharad Pawar said Uddhav would have to approach the apex court as Narwekar had given precedence to the legislature party strength while deciding the contentious issue.
Narwekar, in his ruling, said he could not accept the petitioner’s (Uddhav faction) contention that the 2018 party constitution should be relied upon and the Shiv Sena constitution of 1999, provided by the Election Commission, was the real constitution.
Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut termed the Speaker’s order a conspiracy and said it was a “black day for Marathi manush”.
