Eknath Shinde's faction is the real Shiv Sena: Maharashtra Speaker

Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, announcing his verdict on MLA disqualification matters on Wednesday (January 10), said the party’s constitution of 2018 cannot be taken into account. “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 the Speaker is relevant constitution of Shiv Sena to decide which is the political party,” he said.

Narwekar overturned Uddhav Thackeray's removal of now Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as a group leader of Shiv Sena. "It would be appropriate to note that the Shiv Sena constitution does not have a position called a Paksh Pramukh (which Uddhav Thackeray was holding). The will of the Paksha Pramukh is not synonymous to will of political party. The party president does not have a right to remove anyone from the position," he said.

Shinde's faction is the true Shiv Sena, ruled the Speaker 

Narwekar gave the crucial verdict on cross-petitions by Shiv Sena factions seeking the disqualification of each other's MLAs following a split in the party. The outcome decides the way forward for the Eknath Shinde government and also the Shiv Sena's rival groups.

In all, 34 disqualification pleas have been filed. The Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats. Of the 56 MLAs of the undivided Shiv Sena, 40 are with Shinde. So, the verdict would not have made any difference to the stability of the Shinde government in any case. However, a win for Uddhav could have given him a leg-up ahead of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections slated for April-May 2024.

Vertical split of Sena

The verdict came more than 18 months after the Shiv Sena suffered a vertical split, a political development that resulted in a change of guard in the state.

On Tuesday, the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) upped the ante as its president Uddhav Thackeray said his party has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court objecting to a recent meeting between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is among the MLAs whose disqualification has been sought, and speaker Rahul Narwekar as both sides engaged in a verbal spat.

"If the judge (Narwekar) is going to meet the accused, what should we expect from that judge," Uddhav asked, speaking to the media at his residence `Matoshree' in Mumbai. The affidavit before the SC was filed on Monday, the former CM said.

The Supreme Court last month extended the deadline to January 10 for Narwekar to decide on the cross-petitions filed by rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other's MLAs.

Story till now

On June 21, 2022, Shinde, with a group of Shiv Sena MLAs, rebelled against Uddhav, who was then the Chief Minister, protesting against the party's purported loss of identity in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. Uddhav’s group passed a resolution, removing Shinde as the leader of the legislature party and appointed Ajay Choudhari instead. 

The same day, the Shinde faction passed a resolution that said he would continue to lead the legislature party. Narwekar, who was elected Speaker after the fall of the MVA government, accepted the change on July 3, 2022.

On June 23, disqualification pleas was filed against Shinde and 15 other MLAs on the grounds that they did not attend a meeting that party chief whip Sunil Prabhu had convened. On June 27, some more disqualification pleas were filed, this time against 22 more MLAs of the Shinde camp. Later, petitions were filed against two more MLAs, bringing the total number to 40.

The Shinde faction also filed petitions seeking the disqualification of 14 Shiv Sena (UBT) legislators. 

Eye on elections

The Election Commission had given the 'Shiv Sena' name and 'bow and arrow' symbol to the Shinde-led faction, while the one headed by Uddhav was called the Shiv Sena (UBT) with a flaming torch as its symbol. In July last year, the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP also joined the Shinde-led government.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra are due in the second half of 2024.