Eknath Shinde faction is the real Shiv Sena in Assembly, ruled the Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar while deciding the disqualification petitions against the Chief Minister and several MLAs whose rebellion had split the Shiv Sena last year.
The Speaker further said Shinde was validly appointed as leader of Shiv Sena. He said Uddhav Thackeray had no power to remove Eknath Shinde and adding that Shiv Sena president doesn't hold the decision-making powers for it.
"There is no consensus on the constitution submitted by both the parties (two factions of Shiv Sena) to the EC. The two parties have different points of views on leadership structure. The only aspect is the majority in the legislature party. I will have to decide the relevant constitution to be taken into account to the leadership structure that existed before the dispute...."," said Narwekar. "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."
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He said Shiv Sena constitution provided by Election Commission is the "real constitution, to be called SS Constitution. "In view of the evidence and records before me, prima facie indicates that no elections were held in the year 2013, as well as in the year 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," said Narwekar.
Uddhav Thackeray on January 9 said his party had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court objecting to the recent visit by Narwekar to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde before the verdict. He told media that Narwekar was procrastinating the order.
The SC had last May ruled that Shinde would continue to be the Maharashtra Chief Minister as it could not reinstate the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government headed by Thackeray as the latter chose to resign without facing a floor test. The apex court, however, questioned then Governor BS Koshyari’s action of calling for a floor test in order to solve an intra-party dispute.
On June 21, 2022, Eknath Shinde and a group of Sena MLAs rebelled against Thackeray. They protested against what they saw as the party’s slow loss of identity in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of Congress, NCP and the undivided Sena. The Uddhav faction too passed a resolution sacking Shinde as the leader of the legislature party. It appointed Ajay Choudhari in his place. Sunil Prabhu was appointed the chief whip of the party.
The move was countered by the Shinde faction. It passed a parallel resolution stating the Shinde will remain on the post. Bharatshet Gogawale was appointed chief whip and the appointment was accepted by Narwekar on July 3, 2022.
Last year, the Supreme Court had directed the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions of the MLAs -- 34 in total -- from the two rival Sena camps.
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