Mumbai, Jan 11:
In a jolt to Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, state Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar on Wednesday ruled that the current CM Eknath Shinde led faction is the real Shiv Sena.
Narwekar also ruled that Bharat Gogawale is the whip of the Shiv Sena and not Sunil Prabhu, who is part of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) – as he had ceased to reflect the will of the party when two factions emerged.
While announcing the results in what is being called the disqualification case of Shiv Sena MLAs, including Chief Minister Shinde. Narvekar said that a partyis decided based on the majority, “and in this case the Shinde group has the majority”, he said citing the records with the Legislature Secretariat on June 21, 2022.
Narvekar made an important observation that the Shinde group was the real Shiv Sena. The claim of the Thackeray group has been rejected as the decision of the party chief is final. Narvekar decided that the Shiv Sena party chief could not remove the group leader from the post.
MLAs who are not in touch or contact cannot be disqualified on this ground alone. Moreover, it was proved that Milind Narvekar and Ravindra Phatak of Thackeray group met Eknath Shinde in Surat. Rahul Narvekar observed that since it has been proved that the real party belongs to Shinde during the transfer of power, the issue of non-attendance in the Shiv Sena Legislature Party meeting on 21 June 2022 cannot lead to disqualification.
Giving supreme power to the party chief is harmful to democracy. If this happens, no one in the party will be able to speak against the party leader, said the Speaker. In Shiv Sena Constitution, the decision of the national executive is final, he said.
There is also a discrepancy in the claim submitted by the Uddhav Thackeray group to the Election Commission, he added. On one hand, they say that the party meeting was held at Sena Bhavan, on the other hand they say that the same meeting was held online. So their documents are confusing, observed Narvekar.
