Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday said the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction was the real Shiv Sena since it had the support of a majority of the party’s MLAs.
The Maharashtra Assembly Speaker while pronouncing the order, said the constitution of the Shiv Sena which was made in 1999 had to be taken into consideration as the new constitution framed in 2018 was not presented before Election Commission.
As per the 1999 Shiv Sena Constitution, the concentration of power was not in the hands of the party chief. Later realising the power, they amended the constitution in 2018 and brought back the power into the hands of the party chief.
Maharashtra had plunged into a political crisis in June 2022 after Eknath Shinde, along with some 40 MLAs, rebelled against the erstwhile Shiv Sena, leading to fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
On June 30, 2022, Shinde took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister with the support of the BJP. The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray moved the Bombay High Court against the rebel MLAs over the legality of their defection. The Eknath Shinde-led faction then filed a counter petition.
The matter reached the Supreme Court, which initially ordered the Maharashtra Speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions by December 31, 2023 under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. It was then extended to January 10.
In a related development, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Tuesday moved the Apex Court, questioning the impartiality of Narwekar in deciding on the disqualification petitions against members of the Eknath Shinde faction.
Filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) member Sunil Prabhu, the petition alleged that the Speaker met CM Shinde at the latter’s official residence on January 7, three days before the pronouncement of the verdict in the disqualification petitions.