Maharashtra Speaker Rules Shinde Group Is 'Real' Sena, Uddhav Says "Murder Of Democracy"
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-01-10 15:15:54
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
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The wait is over. The Shiv Sena (Shinde) has been recognized as the 'real' Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra assembly. Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, handed the deadline of January 10 to announce his verdict in the tit-for-tat disqualification of MLAs of rival groups, took the stand that the party 2018 constitution submitted by Shiv Sena (UBT) cannot be relied upon. Relying on the 1999 party constitution uploaded on the EC website (and also submitted by the Shinde faction), the Speaker ruled in favour of the Shinde group. He refused to recognize the amended 2018 constitution as it was not available with the EC. In parallel decisions, the Speaker did not disqualify any of the MLAs belonging to both the Shiv Sena factions. Uddhav Thackeray called the decision "murder of democracy" and an "insult to Supreme Court". The party has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the Speaker's decision.
There were three main reasons spelled out by Speaker Rahul Narwekar in arriving at the decisions. He said that since the amended 2018 constitution of the party could not be recognized, the leadership structure as it existed in 2018 or thereafter could not be used as a yardstick to take any decision. Then, he said that after the party split, Sunil Prabhu ceased to be the chief whip as he was in that position only of the united party. Hence, disqualifying Shiv Sena (Shinde) MLAs for the reason of not following the whip for attending a meeting on June 21, 2022 does not arise. Further, he also ruled that the Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs cannot also be disqualified as although it was alleged that they had resigned from the assembly, no evidence of the same was presented before him.
The Speaker has announced his decision keeping in mind the Supreme Court deadline. But this is not going to be the end of the matter. The action will now shift to the Supreme Court which will examine the Speaker's order and settle the matter by pronouncing its judgment on the various issues arising out of the split in the party.
