Your Decision on Shinde, Chief Whip Was Illegal: Pro-Uddhav MLAs Reply to Speaker's Notice | Exclusive

The Shiv Sena MLAs supporting Eknath Shinde are in a “hopeless minority” and the camp worked to “destabilise” the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Uddhav Thackeray faction has said in response to Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s notice on the latter’s plea seeking disqualification of Shinde camp MLAs.

The reply further alleges that the Speaker’s decision recognising Bharatshet Gogawale of the Shinde camp as the Chief Whip of the Shiv Sena was “illegal” as was the Speaker’s decision to recognise Shinde as the legislative leader of the party.

“MLAs who have joined and supported Eknath Shinde are in a hopeless and negligible minority amongst this undisputed party leadership. Out of the nine elected leaders, no one is supporting the group of Eknath Shinde. Out of the 21 elected deputy leaders, only one, Gulabrao Patil, has supported the group of Eknath Shinde. Out of the four appointed leaders, only Eknath Shinde, the leader of his group is present. Finally, out of the 12 appointed deputy leaders, only Tanaji Sawant has supported Eknath Shinde,” the 242-page reply said.

The reply filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction also challenges the Election Commission’s decision to award the party name and symbol to the Shinde faction.

“The decision of the Speaker recognising Bharatshet Gogawale as the Chief Whip of the Shiv Sena is illegal. The decision of the Speaker recognising Eknath Shinde as the Leader is illegal. In cases where a petition under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order is filed after the (alleged) commission of prohibitory conduct, the decision of the ECI cannot be relied upon by the Speaker for adjudicating disqualification proceedings,” it said.

The reply also contains details from the National Executive Meet of the Shiv Sena held in 2018, wherein Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has been mentioned as Shiv Sena pramukh or chief. It also mentions operative parts of the party’s constitution and a resolution that declared Eknath Shinde and Ajay Chaudhari’s ouster from the party.

“In this organisational structure, the Paksha Pramukh or the party president is the highest authority in the party, and his decisions in all matters concerning the party policy and party administration shall be final.”

A copy of the reply has also been submitted to the Supreme Court, which on July 14 sought a response from the Speaker on a plea filed by pro-Thackeray MLA Sunil Prabhu to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions.

Prabhu had, in his capacity as chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and 15 other MLAs last year after they rebelled and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.

On May 11, the top court ruled that Eknath Shinde will continue to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and that it cannot reinstate the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government headed by Uddhav Thackeray since the Sena leader chose to resign without facing a floor test in the wake of Shinde’s rebellion.