BREAKING | Eknath Shinde Faction Is The Real Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray Had No Power To Remove Him: Maharashtra Speaker

The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar today held that Eknath Shinde led faction was the real Shiv Sena when the rival faction emerged within the party on June 22, 2022. He has refused to disqualify any member from both the factions, led by Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray.

Both the factions had filed 34 petitions against each other before the speaker in 2022, seeking the disqualification of 54 MLAs in total.

UBT faction had submitted that the decision of the pakshapramukh is synonymous with the will of the party so if there is a rift in the leadership structure, the decision of the pakshapramukh constitutes the will of the party.

Disagreeing, Speaker said Shinde faction had an overwhelming majority of 37 of 55 MLAs when rival factions emerged and that Shinde was validly appointed as leader of the party. He said the will of "Party pakshapramukh" at the time, Uddhav, cannot be said to be the will of the political party. This is to enable intra-party dissent. To reach this conclusion, the Speaker relied on the 1999 Constitution of the Party which had diluted the power from the hands of the party chief. He revealed that the 2018 Constitution, which concentrated power in the hands of party chief, is not on Election Commission's record and thus cannot be taken into account by him.

He added that Uddhav Thackeray had no power to remove Eknath Shinde as the party leader.

While refusing to disqualify the 40 members from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction on the petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction, Speaker reasoned that Sunil Prabhu had ceased to be the authorised whip of the party on June 21 and had no authority to call a meeting of the party. Therefore, the Shinde-faction MLAs cannot be disqualified for having violated the said whip. Speaker further said that Shinde faction not attending the meeting can at the most be termed as an act of dissent within the party and it would be protected by freedom of speech and expression.

"If some members go overboard, leading to indiscipline, then the party can take care of such member either by warning or suspension. The 10th Shedule is not intended to be used as a device to be used for imposing intra party discipline. Much less for administering the party. No party leadership can use the provisions of the 10th schedule as a deterrent to stifle the collective dissent of a larger number of members by threatening them with disqualification under the 10th schedule...party members cannot expect high offices of speaker can be used to stifle dissent within party," the Speaker said today.

Bharat Goghavle was validly appointed as the whip, Speaker further declared. However, he refused to disqualify Uddhav-led members for violating the whip issued by Goghavle, stating that Shinde faction failed to prove that whip was served on UBT faction MLAs.

The Supreme Court had initially set a deadline of December 31, 2023, for the Speaker to decide the petitions under the tenth schedule of the Constitution; the court later extended the deadline to January 10, 2024. The SC expressed strong dissatisfaction at the Speaker's delay in the adjudication, observing “the dignity of this court's judgement should be maintained.” 

The Split

On June 21, 2022, Eknath Shinde, a cabinet minister in the Maharashtra Government from the Shiv Sena party, rebelled against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and a group of other Sena MLAs. 

Soon after the rebellion, Uddhav's faction passed a resolution, removed Shinde as leader of the legislature party, and appointed MLA Ajay Choudhari in his place. Uddhav loyalist MLA Sunil Prabhu was appointed the chief whip of the party.

But the same day, Shinde's faction passed another resolution claiming he would continue to lead the legislature party and appointed Bharatshet Gogawale, MLA from Raigad, as the chief whip. The speaker accepted Shinde's resolution on July 3, 2022. 

The event led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Agadhi Government in Maharashtra, a coalition of the Shiv Sena, Indian National Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister on June 29, 2022.

However, disqualification pleas were filed before the Speaker against Shinde and 15 other MLAs who rebelled with him after the Sena split. The Uddhav faction alleged that Shinde and others deliberately failed to attend the meeting convened by the party's whip, Sunil Prabhu. The second set of disqualification petitions were filed on June 27, 2022 against more Shinde-faction MLAs. In total, petitions were filed against 40 Sena MLAs. 

As a counterblast, Eknath Shinde's faction filed petitions seeking the disqualification of 14 Shiv Sena MLAs remaining in the Uddhav Thackeray faction on similar grounds. He also took oath as Chief Minister of Maharashtra with the support of the BJP. 

Both sides approached the Supreme Court against the disqualification petitions. The first petition was filed by Eknath Shinde in June 2022, challenging the notices issued by the then Deputy Speaker against the rebels under the 10th schedule of the Constitution over alleged defection. 

Later, the Thackeray group's whip, Sunil Prabhu, filed petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Maharashtra Governor to call for a trust vote, the swearing-in of Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister of the Government with the backing of BJP, the election of new Speaker etc.

Supreme Court Verdict and Directions to the Speaker 

From February 21, the bench started hearing the matter on merits. In its verdict on May 11, 2023, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held the Governor's earlier decision to order the floor test for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government as well as the Speaker's decision to appoint the whip nominated by the Shinde group was incorrect. All arguments from the SC hearing can be found here. 

The SC also held that the Speaker's decision to appoint Mr. Gogawale (backed by the Shinde group) as the whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal. "The Speaker did not attempt to identify which of the two persons - Mr Prabhu or Mr Gogawale- was the whip authorised by the political party. The speaker must recognise only the whip appointed by the political party."

The court held that it could not order the restoration of the Uddhav Thackeray government as he resigned without facing a floor test. Since Thackeray voluntarily resigned, the Court held that the Governor was right in inviting Ekanth Shinde to form the government with the support of the BJP. 

Significantly, the SC said the Speaker must rely on the original constitution of the Shiv Sena party to decide on the disqualification petitions filed by the rival factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. 

The court said the Speaker must consider the party constitution's version submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) before the rival groups emerged. The judges noted that this would avoid a situation where both factions try to amend the constitution for their benefit. 

The court directed the Speaker not to go by which faction has a majority in the Assembly. He must first determine the real Shiv Sena party without being influenced by the ECI's interim order recognising the Shinde faction.

The Speaker's decision on disqualifying MLAs would also depend on recognising which of the two Whips is legitimate, the judges said. 

ECI

In February 2023, the ECI had given the 'Shiv Sena' name and bow and arrow to the Shinde-led faction, while the one headed by Thackeray was to be called Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), with its symbol being a flaming torch. A challenge against it is pending in the SC.

Decision before the Speaker 

The case before the Speaker concluded on the last day of the Winter Session in Nagpur. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena alleged Shinde and the other rebels violated party whips, but Shinde's group claimed they never received any formal whip telling them how to vote. Shinde's faction said they broke from the MVA coalition because their supporters disliked the alliance, not because they violated legislative rules. Shinde's lawyers also accused the Uddhav faction of forging documents given to the Speaker. The Uddhav camp responded the rebels did not voice opposition to the MVA when it was first formed under Thackeray's leadership.

Shinde's faction also argued that they were recognised as the real Shiv Sena by the Election Commission in February 2023. 

On Tuesday, Uddhav Thackeray filed an affidavit before the SC questioning the impartiality of the Speaker in deciding the disqualification petitions. It alleged that the Speaker met CM Eknath Shinde at the latter's official residence on January 7, days before the verdict. 

The Speaker, however, reportedly said he was within his right to meet the CM for official work and to perform his duty as Speaker.