Voters have given their verdict on Sena, NCP splits; SC ruling likely on same lines: Fadnavis
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said voters had given their clear verdict over splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP in the 2024 assembly polls and the Supreme Court is expected to deliver its judgement on them on similar lines.
The Shiv Sena and the NCP split in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and cases arising out of contesting claims over the party name and the poll symbol were pending before the Supreme Court.
Asked about hearing in the Supreme Court related to Shiv Sena and NCP splits, Fadnavis said the apex court would take the final decision, but electors had already given their verdict in the Assembly polls held two years ago.
"The Shiv Sena matter is under the consideration of the court and the SC will now give its decision. But before that, there is the people's court. That decision was given in the 2024 Assembly polls. The people's court has endorsed that the Shiv Sena belongs to the honourable (deputy Chief Minister) Eknath Shinde and the NCP to (late deputy CM) Ajitdada Pawar," he told reporters.
"Now, everyone's attention is on what the Supreme Court does. But we expect the Supreme Court will also give the same decision," Fadnavis added.
The Shiv Sena split in June 2022 after Shinde and 39 party MLAs rebelled against its leadership, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government helmed by Uddhav Thackeray. Shinde then joined hands with the BJP to form a government, and became the chief minister.
The Election Commission (EC) later recognised the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and granted it permission to use the 'bow and arrow' symbol, while the Thackeray-led camp was allotted the name of Shiv Sena (UBT) and ‘mashaal’ (flaming torch) as its symbol.
The NCP vertically split after Ajit Pawar joined the Shinde-led Mahayuti government in July 2023.
He was appointed the deputy CM at that time. Pawar’s stint in the same post continued after BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis came to the helm as CM following the November 2024 assembly polls.
The claim over the party name and poll symbol had seen a bitter contest between the two rival factions, with Ajit Pawar’s camp getting the original ‘NCP’ name and analogue alarm clock poll symbol from the EC.
The Shiv Sena and the NCP are allies of the ruling BJP.
The EC's decisions on the party name and the poll symbol were challenged by the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP), both Opposition parties, in the apex court.
On the inclusion of caste-wise information in the second phase of the Census, Fadnavis welcomed the Centre's move, saying it fulfilled a long-standing demand.
"We had been saying from the beginning that the central government had accepted the demand for a
caste Census. The exercise has its stages and it will be conducted accordingly," said the CM.
"This (caste count) was a very big demand for many years and no government had ever accepted it. But the Modi government accepted it. I sincerely thank the Modi government for that," Fadnavis added.
The Centre on Friday notified 40 questions with caste, place of Covid vaccination being two of them to be asked of respondents during the population enumeration phase of the Census, set to begin from September 1 in snow-bound areas, a government order said in New Delhi.
The order from Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan notifies questions such as whether the person belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe and their caste.
In the rest of the country, the population enumeration (PE) will begin next year.
This will be the first time when caste details will be collected as part of the Census.
The decision to include caste enumeration was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30 last year.
