AMN / MUMBAI
In a major blow to the Uddhav Thackeray faction in Sena versus Sena case, Maharashtra speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday ruled that Eknath Shinde faction is real Shiv Sena.
In his verdict, Speaker Narwekar said that Uddhav Thackeray had no power to remove Eknath Shinde as Shiv Sena’s legislative party leader.
“Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when rival factions emerged on 21st June 2022,” the Speaker said while reading out his verdict.
The Maharashtra Speaker also rejected the disqualification pleas filed by Udhav Thackeray faction against 14 Shinde camp MLAs for violating the whip issued by Thackeray camp for confidence motion on July 4.
“The whip claimed to have been served by Prabhu never reached the Shinde faction members and UBT faction failed to prove so. Thus the petition demanding to disqualify Shinde faction members is rejected,” he said.
Narwekar cited the 1999 Constitution of Shiv Sena which was available with the Election Commission as a basis of his decision to recognise Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena.
“The last relevant constitution submitted to ECI before the rival groups emerged was of 1999. I hold that Constitution of Shiv Sena party provided by ECI to Speaker is relevant constitution of Shiv Sena to decide which is the political party,” he said.
Reacting to the Speaker’s decision, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturved said that it was “unfortunate compromise of ethics” and claimed it came as per the wishes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“I am not surprised at all. We had heard ‘wahi hota hai jo manzoor-e-khuda hota hai’ and after 2014 a new tradition has begun, ‘wahi hota hai Jo manzoor-e-Narendra Modi aur Amit Shah hota hai’”, Priyanka Chaturvedi said.
“That is what we see happening in Maharashtra. This is an unfortunate compromise of ethics. Something that was termed ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’ by the Supreme Court is being turned into ‘legal’. This is unfortunate,” she added.