Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday began hearing a petition filed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) seeking the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including current chief minister Eknath Shinde, and also a bunch of counter petitions filed by the MLAs from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena seeking action against the MLAs from the rival camp.
The Speaker adjourned the disqualification proceedings for a week after the Shinde group of MLAs asked for some documents and also sought two weeks’ time to prepare for the hearings.
Official sources said that the Speaker would hear 34 petitions, including the one filed by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) seeking disqualification of 16 Shinde Sena MLAs, including the chief minister himself.
On its part, the Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs asked the Speaker to club all the petitions and hear it at one go. However, the Speaker said that all the petitions were independent in nature and they would be heard independently.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde — who engineered the rebellion against then chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and 15 other Sena MLAs in June last year with the help of the then Opposition BJP — are among the 54 Sena MLAs who were present at Thursday 's hearing.
On the first day of hearing, lawyer Nihar Thackeray, grandson of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, argued on behalf of the Eknath Shinde camp, while Advocate Devdutt Kamat appeared on behalf of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
Nihar, the son of Bal Thackeray's eldest son Bindumadhav Thackeray, is also part of Chief Minister Shinde's legal team in the battle against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. He had joined the Eknath Shinde on October 27, 2022, four months after then rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde teamed up with Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government and form a new Government in Maharashtra.