Shinde Faction 'Real' Shiv Sena: What Does Maharashtra Speaker's Ruling Mean? Here's All You Need to Know

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday delivered the much-awaited verdict in the Sena versus Sena tussle, ending for now the over 18-month legacy war between two party factions — one led by chief minister Eknath Shinde and the other by his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray. In a big political win for the chief minister, the speaker recognised his group as the “real” Shiv Sena following the split in the party in June 2022.

Shinde called the decision a victory of the Constitution and democracy while Thackeray’s faction, Shiv Sena (UBT), will be challenging the order in the Supreme Court.

Political analysts said the ruling in the case was on expected lines, but differed on who among the rival factions will benefit from the verdict. They said the decision is unlikely to hurt the Shinde-led government, in which the BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar group) are also partners.

Here’s what Narwekar said in his 105-minute reading of the key points of the ruling:

1. Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar said CM Eknath Shinde’s faction is the “real” Shiv Sena because his group had an overwhelming majority of 37 out of the total 54 Sena MLAs when the rival factions emerged in June 2022.
2. The speaker rejected the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction’s plea to disqualify 16 “rebel” MLAs of the Shiv Sena, including Shinde.
3. In his order, Narwekar said Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022, and Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorised whip.
4. He observed all the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected and no MLA is being disqualified.
5. During his reading of the order, Narwekar further said no party leadership can use provisions of the 10th schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) for dissent or indiscipline within a party. Both the factions had filed the cross-petitions under the anti-defection law.
6. He held that the Shiv Sena pramukh (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party.
7. The speaker also did not accept the argument that the will of the party chief and the will of the party were synonymous.
8. Narwekar also said the party constitution was the relevant document on which to decide the real party as it lays down the leadership structure. The Shiv Sena (undivided) constitution was amended in 2018 but was not on the records and, so, the 1999 constitution submitted with the Election Commission of India was considered as a reference point.
9. The speaker said this document was the valid constitution for deciding the issues of leadership, ownership, dissent, defection among other issues.
10. He said the Thackeray group’s contention that the amended constitution of 2018 should be relied upon was not acceptable. He added that the 1999 constitution made the ‘Rashtriya Karyakarini’ (national executive) the supreme body.

(With PTI inputs)