Maharashtra Speaker Refuses Demand To Disqualify Thackeray’s MLAs

On Wednesday while announcing his verdict on the MLA’s disqualification case the Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar said,” The Eknath Shinde Faction was the real Shiv Sena when the party faced a vertical split on June 21, 2022.” He also rejected the Eknath Shinde faction’s demand for the disqualification of 14 out of 16 MLAs who are loyal to Uddhav Thackrey.

“Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when rival factions emerged on 21st June 2022. Also in my view, the 2018 leadership structure (submitted with ECI) was not as per the Shiv Sena Constitution. Shiv Sena party chief as per the party Constitution can not remove anyone from the party. So Uddhav Thackeray removed Eknath Shinde or any party leader from the party as per the party Constitution. So the removal of Eknath Shinde by Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022 is not accepted based on the Shiv Sena Constitution,” he added.

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The number of Shiv Sena(UBT) MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly stands at 16. Shinde-led Shiv Sena demanded the disqualification of 14 MLAs, except Aaditya Thackeray and Rutuja Latke.

Right from the start the Shinde faction had excluded Aaditya Thackeray’s name from the disqualification notice. This is because Aaditya is the grandson of Balasaheb Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena and Shinde considers him as his political Guru or mentor.

Today, Narwekar stated that since the whip was not given to them in person, the disqualification argument is rejected.

56 seats were won by the Shiv Sena in the 2019 assembly elections.

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38 MLAs backed Shinde when he split from the Shiv Sena, which was then led by Uddhav Thackeray, in 2022. Sixteen MLAs supported Thackeray.

He had brought legal action to disqualify Shinde and his 38 rebels. Later, Bharat Gogawale, the party’s chief whip, filed a counterpetition calling for the removal of 14 MLAs.

The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar, was summoned by the Supreme Court last month to deliver a ruling on disqualification petitions that the Shiv Sena factions of Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray had filed by January 10.