In a major setback to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday recognised the Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde as the “real Shiv Sena” and rejected a plea by the Sena (UBT) seeking disqualification of 16 Sena MLAs, including Shinde himself, thus retaining the stability of the “Maha-Yuti” Government.
More than 18 months after the Shinde-led Shiv Sena teamed up with the BJP and toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government, the Speaker ruled that the decision taken by Uddhav to remove Shinde, after the June 2022 rebellion within the erstwhile parent Sena, lacked the mandate of the political party and that “the ‘paksha pramukh’ (party president) does not have the power to remove any leader from the party”.
“The 1999 party constitution submitted to the Election Commission by the Shiv Sena was the valid one for deciding the issues related to leadership. The Shiv Sena UBT group’s contention that the amended constitution of 2018 should be relied on was not acceptable….The 1999 constitution made the ‘rashtriya karyakarini’ (national executive) the supreme body….the ‘paksha pramukh’ (party president) does not have the power to remove any leader from the party,” the Speaker stated in his order.
“The 2018 leadership structure was not in conformity with the constitution of the Shiv Sena (of 1999 which is relied upon). This leadership structure cannot be taken as the yardstick to determine which faction is a real Shiv Sena political party,” Narwekar said.
“The 2018 amended constitution of Shiv Sena cannot be considered as valid as it is not in the records of the Election Commission of India. As per Supreme Court orders, I cannot delve into any other factor on which the constitution is valid. As per records, I am relying on the 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena as the valid constitution,” the Speaker said.
“In view of the evidence and records before me, (it) prima facie indicates that no elections were held in the year 2013, as well as in the year 2018. However, I as the speaker exercising jurisdiction under the 10th Schedule have limited jurisdiction and cannot go beyond the record of the ECI as available on the website and hence I have not considered this aspect while determining the relevant leadership structure,” the Speaker noted.
“Thus, given the above conclusions, I find that the leadership structure of Shiv Sena reflected in the letter dated 27th February 2018 available on the website of the ECI is the relevant leadership structure which has to be taken into account for the purpose of determining which faction is the real political party...,” the Speaker said, as he recognised Shinde faction as the “real Shiv Sena”.
While the ruling Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) welcomed the Speaker’s ruling through celebrations, the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said that the Speaker’s order was nothing but “murder of democracy”. He said his party would move the Supreme Court. On his part, Shinde said that in democracy “numbers are important” .
It may be recalled that Shinde — who along with 15 Shiv Sena MLAs had walked out of the parent Sena camp — later mustered a strength of 40 rebel Sena MLAs and teamed with the Fadnavis-led BJP and toppled the Uddhav-led MVA government and formed his own government in last week of June 2022.
The Shiv Sena (UBT), in petition seeking disqualification of Shinde and 15 other party MLAs, had claimed that despite a party whip, these 16 MLAs failed to attend the meeting convened by the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022, which amounted to anti-party activity and attracted disqualification as per the rules.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) had moved the Supreme Court questioning the delay in giving ruling in the MLAs’ disqualification case.
Subsequently on May 11, 2023, a Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had asked the Speaker to decide on the disqualification of 16 rebel Sena MLAs, including Shinde. Among other things, the apex court had said that it would not interfere in the disqualification proceedings against 16 Sena MLAs and that the Speaker must decide on the same “within a reasonable period”.
Among other things, the Speaker in his order, the Speaker stressed on the importance of the Shiv Sena’s constitution in determining the legitimate leadership structure on the ground that it formed the basis for internal governance.
An amendment to the Shiv Sena constitution was carried out in 2018, but it was not officially recorded. Hence, the constitution from 1999, registered with the Election Commission of India, was considered valid.
The Speaker, in his order, dwelt upon the absence of organisational elections in 2018 which raised questions about the legitimacy of subsequent leadership structures.
Though in the 2018 leadership structure, the Constitution acknowledged the ‘paksha pramukh’ as the highest office, the acknowledgement did not align with the provisions of the party’s constitution.
The Shiv Sena’s 1999 constitution vested supreme authority with the national executive, rather than the ‘paksha pramukh.’ The constitution did not vest absolute power with the ‘paksha pramukh’ and it made it clear that he would have to consult the party’s national executive in taking major decisions.