IN A setback to the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray, more than one-and-a-half years after the party split into two, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday declared that the opposing faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was “the real political party”.
Narwekar, however, dismissed all 34 petitions, filed by both sides, seeking the disqualification of 54 MLAs belonging to rival factions.
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“This is murder of democracy by the Speaker… We will approach the Supreme Court against the verdict,” said Thackeray. He alleged that the Speaker did not abide by the Supreme Court’s directives.
Shinde, on the other hand, welcomed the decision. “I always used to say that a majority is important in a democracy. We have a majority in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. The real Shiv Sena name and poll symbol have been allotted to us by the Election Commission,” he said.
In a nearly 1,200-page verdict on the 34 petitions that the rival Sena parties had filed against one another in June-July 2022, Narwekar also dismissed pleas seeking disqualification of Prahar Janashakti Party leader Bacchu Kadu and two Independent MLAs — Narendra Bhindekar and Rajendra Yadravakar.
“I hold that the Shinde faction was the real political party when the rival faction emerged on June 21, 2022… Shinde faction had an overwhelming majority of 37 of the 55 MLAs when rival factions emerged,” Narwekar said.
While adjudicating the petitions, Narwekar said he had to rely on three parameters: the Shiv Sena Constitution, its leadership structure, and legislative majority.
He held that the Sena’s 1999 Constitution, provided by the Election Commission, was the relevant and “only official” Constitution to decide the matter. The Sena (UBT) had said the amended 2018 Constitution should be taken into account. Narwekar said he relied on the 1999 Constitution, as the 2018 Constitution was not available with the poll panel.
As per the leadership structure, the paksha pramukh (party chief) is only the presiding member of the party’s Rashtriya Karyakarini (national executive). When there is a vertical split, leaders of both factions can equally claim the will of the political party, he said.
Narwekar held that the paksha pramukh alone did not have the power to remove any leader from the party. Thus Shinde’s removal by Thackeray was not accepted. “The power of the Shiv Sena paksha pramukh is not absolute and it has to be exercised in consultation with the Rashtriya Karyakarini,” he said.
He also said the submission by Shiv Sena (UBT) that “the decision of paksha pramukh is synonymous to the will of the political party in case of a rift is devoid of merit”. The party Constitution made the Rashtriya Karyakarini the supreme body, he said.
Narwekar held that the 2018 leadership structure was not in conformity with the 1999 Constitution, and the party’s 2018 Constitution does not provide a reliable answer to the question of which faction is the real party, and is not a yardstick to determine the same.
Narwekar also said that Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sunil Prabhu ceased to be the party whip since a rival faction had emerged, and Bharat Gogavale from the Shinde faction was validly appointed party whip on June 21, 2022.
“In view of the evidence and records presented before me, prima facie it indicates that no elections (internal elections of Sena) were held in the year 2013, as well as in the year 2018. Eknath Shinde was validly appointed as leader of Shiv Sena political party,” he held.
Dismissing counter-petitions filed by the Shinde faction seeking disqualification of rival faction members, Narwekar held: “Submissions by the Shinde faction that legislators from UBT faction were liable to be disqualified cannot be accepted on the ground that it is mere allegation… that they had voluntarily given up membership of party. No material given to substantiate…. Though petition tried to show that whip was served on respondent, the petitioner has failed to prove… There are major inconsistencies… Thus the submission for disqualification of UBT members also cannot be accepted.”
In May 2023, the Supreme Court had told Narwekar to independently decide the preliminary issue on which of the two factions was the real Shiv Sena.
At a hearing in October 2023, the Supreme Court had pulled up Narwekar for not deciding on the petitions, saying he “can’t defeat the orders of the Supreme Court like this”. The court subsequently set a December 31 deadline and extended it to January 10.
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