Shinde-led group real Shiv Sena, rules Speaker

Mumbai: In a relief to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged in June 2022.

In his 105-minute long reading of the key points of the ruling, Rahul Narwekar also rejected Uddhav Thackeray faction's petition to disqualify 16 Shiv Sena MLAs including Shinde. As Narwekar finished reading the order, celebrations broke out among Chief Minister Shinde's supporters, who burst firecrackers, while Sena (UBT) leaders Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray said their party will approach Supreme Court against the Speaker's order.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar said Uddhav Thackeray will have to approach the apex court against the ruling of the Speaker, who gave precedence to the legislature party.

Narwekar said no party leadership can use provision of 10th schedule of Constitution for dissent or indiscipline within party. In his order on disqualification petitions filed by Shinde-led Sena and the rival faction led by Uddhav Thackeray against each other's MLAs, Narwekar said Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022, and Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorised whip.

“All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected. No MLA is being disqualified,” Narwekar said. The Speaker also held that the Shiv Sena ‘pramukh' (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party. He also did not accept the argument that the will of the party chief and the will of the party were synonymous. The 1999 party constitution submitted to the Election Commission was the valid constitution for deciding the issues, and the Thackeray group's contention that the amended constitution of 2018 should be relied on was not acceptable, he added.