Shinde-led camp real Shiv Sena, declares Maharashtra speaker
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday ruled that Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) was the «real» political party while dismissing the Uddhav Thackeray (UBT) camp's petition to disqualify 40 MLAs, including Shinde for violating party discipline. In a 1,200 page verdict on 34 petitions that the two rival parties had moved against each other, Narwekar held that the Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena.
«I hold that the Shinde faction was the real political party when the two rival factions emerged on June 21,2022.
The Shinde faction had an overwhelming majority of 37 of the 55 MLAs when rival factions emerged,» said the Speaker.
The Speaker, however, also dismissed the Shinde faction's attempt to disqualify the 14 MLAs of the UBT faction for not obeying its whip, saying there was no evidence to show that the Shinde faction had served notices to the UBT MLAs. «Though the petition (by Shinde tried to show that the whip was served on respondent (UBT MLAs), the petitioner has failed to prove that the whip was served.
There are major inconsistencies in the cross examination of Bharag Gogawale (chief whip of Shinde faction)… Thus the disqualification of UBT members also cannot be accepted,» he said.
Narwekar, in his ruling, said that there were two constitutions — the 2018 amended constitution which gave party president powers and the 1999 Shiv Sena constitution — that provides that the national executive is the highest authority of the party whose decision would be final. Narwekar held that the amendments in the 2018 constitution were not valid for several reasons, including that there were no elections in 2013 and 2018.
