The Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction of the Shiv Sena on Monday moved the Supreme Court, challenging Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s order declaring the Sena bloc led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the “real political party” following its split in June 2022.
The speaker, in his decision on January 10, also dismissed the Thackeray faction’s plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde.
In his ruling, the speaker refrained from disqualifying any MLA from the rival camps. This decision solidified Shinde’s position as the chief minister, 18 months after leading a rebellion against Thackeray, and bolstered his political influence in the ruling coalition, which includes the BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar group). This development comes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the summer and state assembly elections scheduled for the second half of 2024.
Narwekar emphasized that no party leadership could utilize provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) to suppress dissent or indiscipline within a party. The Shinde group had the support of 37 out of the total 54 Sena MLAs when the party split in June 2022, as noted by the speaker. The Election Commission had granted the ‘Shiv Sena’ name and ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the Shinde-led faction in early 2023.
In his order on the disqualification petitions, Narwekar stated that Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022 (when the party split), and legislator Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorized whip. Narwekar rejected all petitions seeking the disqualification of MLAs, emphasizing that no MLA was being disqualified.
The speaker also asserted that the Shiv Sena ‘pramukh’ (chief) lacked the authority to remove any leader from the party. He did not accept the argument that the will of the party chief and the will of the party were synonymous. Narwekar deemed the 1999 party constitution, submitted to the Election Commission, as the valid constitution for deciding the issues, rejecting the Thackeray group’s contention that the amended constitution of 2018 should be relied upon.
