Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday began hearing the disqualification petitions filed against each other by two rival Shiv Sena factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Sena (UBT) chief and ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray.
The hearing commenced around 10.30 a.m. in the Legislative Assembly and continued till 2 p.m. with as many as 34 petitions being heard. Both factions were being represented by their respective lawyers.
Anil Sakhre, representing the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction claimed his team did not receive relevant documents from the Sena (UBT) camp while the MLAs in Mr. Thackeray’s camp accused the Speaker of procrastinating in a bid to push the hearing as far as possible.
Sources said that the next hearing is slated after two weeks.
Ravindra Waikar, an MLA from the Uddhav Thackeray faction, claimed that the Speaker was indulging in delaying tactics while Bhaskar Jadhav, another legislator from the Thackeray camp, alleged that the move was to “save Mr. Shinde’s chair”.
“It is for the speaker to provide all relevant documents to both sides. The Supreme Court, in its judgement, has already held the whip issued by Sunil Prabhu [of the Thackeray faction] was the valid one while declaring the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as whip by the Shinde camp as invalid,” Mr. Waikar said.
Mr. Prabhu had, in his capacity as chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, had filed disqualification petitions against Mr. Shinde and 15 other rebel Sena MLAs last year after they split the party and aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a new government in June 2022.
In July, Mr. Narwekar had issued notices to 40 MLAs of the Shinde-led Sena and 14 of the Thackeray faction, seeking their replies on disqualification petitions against them.
On May 11, the Supreme Court had ruled that Mr. Shinde will continue to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra while stating it could not reinstate the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government headed by Mr. Thackeray as the latter chose to resign without facing a floor test in the wake of Shinde’s rebellion.
However, the SC judgement had ticked-off then Governor B.S. Koshyari action for calling for a floor test in order to solve an intra-party dispute while holding that the appointment of Bharat Gogawale (of the Shinde faction) as the whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal.
