Sena vs Sena: Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged on June 21, 2022. Reading out his ruling on disqualification petitions filed by Shinde-led Sena and the rival faction led by Uddhav Thackeray against each other's MLAs, Narwekar also said that Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022.
- There is no consensus on the constitution submitted by both the parties (two factions of Shiv Sena) to the EC. The two parties have different points of view on leadership structure. The only aspect is the majority in the legislature party. I will have to decide the relevant constitution to be taken into account to the leadership structure that existed before the dispute, the Maharashtra Speaker said.
- Cannot accept petitioner’s (Uddhav faction) contention that the 2018 party constitution should be relied upon, the Speaker said.
- As per the Apex court both the factions have submitted different versions of the constitution party, then in that case what has to be taken into account, the constitution which was submitted to the ECI with the consent of both parties before the rival factions emerged.
- Before recording further conclusion it is imperative to reiterate that pursuant to the initiation of this disqualification, the Maharashtra Legislative Secretariat had a letter dated June 7 2023, requesting the Office of ECI to provide a copy of the party constitution/memorandum/rules.
- The constitution of Shiv Sena provided by ECI is the relevant constitution of Shiv Sena for the determination of which faction is the real political party.
- In my jurisdiction under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, I cannot delve into any other factor while deciding which is the relevant constitution. As prima facie, it is evident from the records of the ECI that the 1991 constitution is the one which was submitted to the ECI by the Shi Sena before rival factions emerged. Further, it is also necessary to mention that the petitioner's submission that the constitution of the year 2018 was submitted to the ECI by referring to the letter dated April 4, 2018, cannot be accepted, Rahul Narwekar said.
- Shiv Sena constitution relevant to the extent of identifying leadership structure... the 1999 constitution is the one which was submitted to Election Commission by Shiv Sena before rival groups were born.
- The submission of Mr Kamat, the jurisdiction under the Tenth Schedule only mandates a prima facie adjudication as to what the leadership structure of the political party was at the relevant time, and it does not extend to an enquiry as to whether or not the leadership structure available on the record of the ECI was pursuant to a validly held election is a correct position, and hence I conquer with the same, the Speaker said.
- The speaker also held that the Shiv Sena ‘pramukh’ (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party. The 1999 party constitution submitted to the Election Commision was the valid constitution for deciding the issues, he said. This constitution made the `Rashtriya Karyakarini' (national executive) the supreme body, he said.
- The Assembly Speaker announced a crucial verdict on the cross-petitions submitted by different factions of the Shiv Sena, each seeking the disqualification of the other's MLAs following an internal party split. The outcome of this decision holds significant implications for the Eknath Shinde government and the rival groups within the regional outfit.
With inputs from agencies
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