Maharashtra Speaker Decides Shinde Faction Is Real Shiv Sena; Rejects Thackeray Faction's Plea

Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday decided that the state’s chief minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena is the real Shiv Sena. Saying that Uddhav Thackeray has no power to remove Eknath Shinde as Shiv Sena’s legislative party leader, the Speaker said reading his verdict: “Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when rival factions emerged on 21st June 2022.”

The Maharashtra Speaker also rejected the disqualification pleas of the Uddhav Thackeray faction against Shinde faction MLAs for violating the whip issued by the Thackeray faction for a confidence motion on July 4. “The whip claimed to have been served by Prabhu never reached the Shinde faction members and the UBT faction failed to prove so. Thus, the petition demanding to disqualify Shinde faction members is rejected,” the Speaker said.

As a long coalition partner of the BJP, Shiv Sena had been in the BJP-led NDA alliance till 2019. With the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, the Shiv Sena-led NDA alliance emerged victorious and the tussle broke out regarding the chief ministerial candidate. With Shiv Sena wanting the chief minister post, the BJP could not adjust the demand, leading to the Sena”s leaving of the NDA alliance, ending a longstanding alliance. Shiv Sena then joined a newly formed alliance called Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the chief minister of Maharashtra with the support of NCP and Congress under MVA alliance.

But things changed in 2022 when a group of Sena opposed Thackeray’s ideological shift, leading to the split of the party, with Eknath Shinde, a long-time Sena member and then minister and many other MLAs leaving Sena and joining the BJP.

However, on the petitions about which is the real Shiv Sena, the election commission of India had ruled in Shinde’s faction’s favour. The Thackeray faction had to rename the party and change its symbols. After the cross-hearing in the Supreme Court, the court permitted the Speaker to decide on the disqualification plea filed by Thackeray’s faction.

The Speaker however today (Wednesday) cited the 1999 constitution to recognise the 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 the Constitution of Shiv Sena party provided by ECI to the Speaker is the relevant constitution of Shiv Sena to decide which is the political party,” the Speaker said.

Responding to the Speaker’s verdict, Shiv Sena (UBT), the renamed party of Uddhav Thackeray, MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that it was an unfortunate compromise of ethics. She also said that the decision 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 added.

However, the Shiv Sena (UBT) can still approach the Supreme Court if it is not satisfied with the verdict.