Shinde-led group real Shiv Sena: Narwekar

Mumbai: Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday dismissed all disqualification petitions filed against Shiv Sena MLAs and three independent MLAs. He also held that the Eknath Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena when the rival factions emerged in the party on June 21, 2022 and Shinde was the “validly” appointed leader of the party.

Narvekar held that the two rival factions emerged in Shiv Sena on June 21, 2002 and it came to the notice of the state legislature on the next day. He also held that the “leadership structure” of the Shiv Sena was not at all in conformity with the constitution of the party and therefore the will of the majority leaders of the party was not synonymous to the will of the party.

The Speaker further held that Uddhav Thackeray, as the party president, did not have absolute power to remove anyone from the party. He needed the consensus of the party’s ‘Rashtriya Karyakarini’ as per the party constitution.

The Thackeray faction had contended that they had amended the party constitution in 2018 by which all powers in the party were given to the party president. However, the Speaker noted that the only Shiv Sena constitution which is on the record of the Election Commission of India was the constitution of 1999 and the ECI does not have any record regarding any amendments in the Shiv Sena constitution.

“In my jurisdiction under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, I cannot delve into any other factor while deciding which is the relevant constitution. As prima facie, it is evident from the records of the ECI that the 1999 constitution is the one which was submitted to the ECI by the Shi Sena before rival factions emerged,” he said.

Narwekar held that Sunil Prabhu, who was appointed as the whip by the Thackeray faction, had no authority to call a meeting of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party (SSLP) and therefore legislators cannot be disqualified for not attending the meetings for which he issued whip.

Thackeray had called two meetings on June 21 and 22, 2022 which were not attended by several MLAs supporting Shinde. While refusing to disqualify the 39 members from the Eknath Shinde faction, Narvekar held that the Thackeray faction was trying to use the Speaker’s office to deal with the intra-party issues. He said that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution cannot be allowed to suppress dissent within the party.

The speaker ruled that not attending party meetings and voicing differences of opinion outside the House of the Legislature are the internal matters of the party. Such conduct can at the most be termed as act of dissent within the party and it would be protected by freedom of speech and expression, he said.

The Thackeray faction had filed separate petitions against the Shinde faction MLAs on the ground that they defied the whips issued by Prabhu for the election of the Speaker and confidence motion of the Shinde government. However, Narvekar dismissed these petitions also. He held that apart from his conclusion that Prabhu seized to be the chief whip after the emergence of rival factions, the Thackeray faction also failed to prove that the said whips were served on all MLAs.

Similarly, the disqualification petitions filed by the Shinde faction against the 14 MLAs of the Thackeray faction were also dismissed. In this case also, Narvekar held that Bharat Gogawale, who was “validly” appointed as the whip, failed to establish that the whips were served on the MLAs.

Reacting to the Speaker’s decision, Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut said, “Will approach Supreme Court against Assembly Speaker’s order.”Uddhav Thackeray called it “murder of democracy and insult of the Supreme Court”. “We will go among the people. We have been going among the people and we will fight together along with the people of the state,” he said.

However, Union minister Ramdas Athavale said that the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker has taken the decision as per the Constitution. “This is a huge jolt to Uddhav Thackeray. Eknath Shinde will remain the CM, and his faction is the real Shiv Sena political party,” Athavale said.

The Sinde faction questioned why the MLAs of the Thackeray were not disqualified under the anti-defection law. Its spokesperson Naresh Mhaske said, “If the Speaker accepted that we are the real Shiv Sena and Eknath Shinde is the Shiv Sena leader, the MLAs defying the party whip should have been disqualified. We will decide our further course of action after reading the entire order.”