In a big win for Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday ruled that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was legitimate as he had the support of majority party MLAs.
The Speaker was deciding on the disqualification petitions of the rival Shiv Sena factions — 34 in total — which he had divided into six parts.
Pronouncing his order, Speaker Rahul Narwekar said that the 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena has to be taken into consideration as the amended 2018 constitution was not before the Election Commission. The 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena removed the concentration of power from the hands of the party chief. However, the amended constitution in 2018 put the power back into the hands of the party chief.
Based on this, the Speaker said that Uddhav Thackrey, the Shiv Sena pramukh (president), did not have the power to remove Eknath Shinde as the leader of the legislative party.
The verdict comes 18 months after Eknath Shinde, along with over 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, rebelled against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which included the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress as well.
Eknath Shinde then joined hands with the BJP and became the new Chief Minister, with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.
The Shinde and Thackeray factions filed cross-petitions before the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker seeking action against each other under anti-defection laws.
The Supreme Court in May 2023 directed Speaker Rahul Narwekar to adjudicate on the pleas expeditiously.
The Election Commission had given the ‘Shiv Sena’ name and ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the Shinde-led faction, while the one headed by Thackeray 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. Ajit Pawar became the Deputy CM along with Devendra Fadnavis.
Assembly polls in Maharashtra are due in the second half of 2024.