16 Sena (UBT) legislators including Aaditya to follow Shinde camp whip: Speaker

Rahul Narwekar’s remarks imply that the 16 MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) will have to obey orders of the Eknath Shinde-led Sena in the assembly

MUMBAI: Sixteen Shiv Sena (UBT) legislators including Aaditya Thackeray will have to abide by the whip issued by the Eknath Shinde-led Sena in the Maharashtra assembly, speaker Rahul Narwekar has said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray (PTI)

“Every member of a legislative party has to follow the whip issued by the whip of the party. There is only one Shiv Sena party that is recognised (on the floor of the assembly). So whoever is the member of the Shiv Sena legislative party will have to follow its whip,” Narwekar said in an interview with HT on Thursday, a day after he decided a batch of petitions filed by the two factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of rival camp’s legislators.

Sunil Prabhu, the chief whip of the Thackeray-led faction, said the party will consult legal experts on the point raised by the speaker’s comments in the HT interview.

“A whip is applicable during the session of state legislature, and as of now, the assembly is not in session. The party will take legal opinion on Narwekar’s claim,” Prabhu said.

Another Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhasker Jadhav said Narwekar’s statement could be designed to scare MLAs into switching sides. “It seems that Narwekar thinks that he is the final authority, but it is not so. The Supreme Court is there and it will decide on the matter. Narwekar might be making statements that the Shinde faction whip will apply to MLAs supporting the Thackeray faction to threaten us that we will get disqualified if we do not join the Shinde faction.”

On Wednesday, Narwekar ruled that chief minister Shinde’s party was the real Shiv Sena and that Shinde was the leader of the party in the legislature from the day Sunil Prabhu, the chief whip appointed by Uddhav Thackeray, was replaced by the whip appointed by the Shinde faction, Bharat Gogawale. Narwekar’s verdict did not disqualify MLAs from either camps

Asked why he didn’t disqualify the Thackeray faction’s 14 MLAs on the disqualification petition sought by the Shinde-led Sena, Narwekar said: “When you are adjudicating a disqualification petition, you have to see that the whip was issued by an appropriate person and if it was served to the MLAs. There was no evidence from the Shinde faction to show that the whip was issued to the Thackeray faction MLAs. Therefore, it was not possible for me to disqualify them.”

Though the Thackeray faction currently has 16 MLAs, the Shinde faction had not sought disqualification of Aaditya Thackeray since he was the grandson of party founder Bal Thackeray while Andheri East MLA Rutuja Latke was elected in a byelection that was held after the split.