The infamous infighting between two factions of Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackery is yet to see a conclusion as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday backed the ruling camp prompting the rival side to move the Supreme Court. The Speaker 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. The speaker also held that the Shiv Sena ‘pramukh’ (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party.
As the complex legal matter failed to reach the point at the assembly which would have been acceptable for both parties, Thackeray's faction is set to prolong the battle in the top court.
Here are the top turning points of the case - Timeline
- January 10, 2024: The Maharashtra Speaker backed Shinde faction's claim giving a big relief to the Maharashtra government.
- January 9, 2024: Shiv Sena (UBT) denounced in the SC the "highly improper" meeting between the CM and the Speaker, barely three days before the deadline set by the apex court for the latter to decide cross-petitions filed by both camps.
- January 7, 2024: Narwekar met Shinde at 'Varsha', the chief minister's official residence.
- December 15, 2023: The Supreme Court extended the deadline for Narwekar to decide the disqualification petitions from December 31 to January 10.
- July 10, 2023: The Thackeray faction moved the apex court, seeking a direction to the speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.
- February 17, 2023: The EC allotted the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the party’s symbol to the Shinde faction.
- February 20, 2023: Thackeray faction moved the SC challenging the decision of the EC recognising the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordering allocation of the poll symbol to it.
- September 27, 2022: The Supreme Court declined the plea of the Thackeray faction seeking to restrain the EC from deciding the Shinde group’s claim over the 'original' Shiv Sena.
- August 23, 2022: The top court refers to a five-judge bench the petitions filed by the Shinde camp raising several constitutional questions related to defection, merger and disqualification.
- August 4, 2022: SC asks EC not to take any precipitate action on the Shinde faction’s plea that seeks recognition of his camp as the real Shiv Sena and ownership of the party’s poll symbol.
- July 11, 2022: SC asks newly elected Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar not to proceed with the plea seeking disqualification of MLAs.
- June 30, 2022: Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan ousting his former party colleague Uddhav Thackeray.
- June 29, 2022: The top court refused to stay a Governor’s direction to the MVA government to take a floor test in the Assembly.
- 29 Jun 2022: Thackeray resigned as the Maharashtra Chief Minister.
- June 27, 2022: The Supreme Court sought a response from the Speaker to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.
- June 21, 2022: Shinde triggered a political crisis which led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. He and several other Shiv Sena MLAs moved to Surat and later Guwahati.
