Notices issued to Shinde and Thackeray MLAs in disqualification case

The Supreme Court, in its May order, had ordered the speaker to take a decision on the disqualification petition and also ruled that the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde group as its chief whip was illegal. Narwekar had then sought a copy of the Shiv Sena constitution from the Election Commission of India and studied it as well as various other orders regarding the disqualification of elected representatives

Mumbai: Speaker of the state assembly Rahul Narwekar on Saturday issued notices to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 38 MLAs from the Shiv Sena as well as 14 MLAs from the Thackeray faction in the disqualification case. As per the rule, the 53 MLAs have been given seven days’ time to respond.

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The Supreme Court, in its May order, had ordered the speaker to take a decision on the disqualification petition and also ruled that the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde group as its chief whip was illegal. Narwekar had then sought a copy of the Shiv Sena constitution from the Election Commission of India and studied it as well as various other orders regarding the disqualification of elected representatives.

On Saturday, the state legislature secretariat issued the notices to the CM and his supporter MLAs and also to the Thackeray faction MLAs. Narwekar is expected to start the hearing procedure once they submit their responses.

The Thackeray faction had moved a disqualification petition against 16 defecting MLAs in June 2022—these included CM Shinde, Sandipan Bhumre, Abdul Sattar, Tanaji Sawant, Yamini Jadhav, Balaji Kalyankar, Balaji Kinikar, Sanjay Raimulkar, Ramesh Bornare, Chimanrao Patil, Prakash Surve, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Lata Sonawane, Mahesh Shinde and Prakash Surve.

Later, it also moved a disqualification petition against another 23 MLAs who subsequently joined the Shinde camp. MLA Santosh Bangar, who defected to the Shinde camp later, is not in that list.

On the other hand, the Shinde camp has moved a disqualification petition against the 14 Thackeray faction MLAs on the grounds that they voted against the whip issued by Bharat Gogawale. Aaditya Thackeray and Rutuja Latke, who was elected to the assembly later in a byelection, were not included in this list.

A secretariat officer confirmed that notices had been issued to all the MLAs in the disqualification case, including CM Shinde. Under the anti-defection law, MLAs in the breakaway faction are disqualified if they are less than two-thirds of the total number of MLAs and if they fail to merge with any other party in the assembly.

MLC and Shinde group spokesperson Manisha Kayande said that the MLAs and party would submit their response to the speaker soon. “We will explain our stand in front of the speaker,” she said. MLC and spokesperson of the Thackeray faction Anil Parab said that they too would explain their stand. “We will also point out that the SC, in its order, said that the appointment of the Shinde group’s Bharat Gogawale as whip was illegal,” he said.