Sena (UBT): Get ECI to verify letter sent to name Thackeray as chief

The hearing in the Sena vs Sena battle focused on petitions filed against each other. Key issues included the amendment of Shiv Sena's constitution and an email sent to Eknath Shinde. The protracted process may breach the Supreme Court deadline.

This was in response to Sena counsel Jethmalani questioning the submission to the poll body in 2018

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MUMBAI

The hearing in the Sena vs Sena battle on Friday revolved around petitions filed before speaker Rahul Narwekar from both Sena factions against each other over the last two days.

One of the key issues leading the questioning was the amendment of Shiv Sena’s constitution, which was submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in April, 2018. The Thackeray faction demanded that ECI be summoned to check the veracity of the letter it had submitted to record the change in the constitution to make Uddhav Thackeray the party president or paksh pramukh.

This was in response to allegations by the Shinde-led Sena counsel Mahesh Jethmalani that the documents were never submitted by the party at the time.

The other issue discussed was the email sent to Eknath Shinde by the then Shiv Sena, reprimanding him for not turning up at the MLAs meeting on June 22, 2022. Heated arguments ensued between both sides on the matter, with the Shinde faction demanding an inquiry in the matter.

At one point Narwekar intervened to state that this protracted process was delaying the hearing and there is a danger the Supreme Court deadline of December 31, may be breached. The speaker had made a similar observation on the second day of the hearing as well.

After the first half’s arguments, Devdutt Kamat, counsel for Shiv Sena (UBT) told the speaker that if their petition was in anyway delaying the proceedings, they would not press for summoning the ECI officials. He however clarified that they were not withdrawing it.

Later in the day, Shinde faction’s leader and industries minister Uday Samant said Sunil Prabhu, Sena (UBT’s) chief whip who was being questioned by Jethmalani, was resorting to delaying tactics and attempting to suppress his own lies and fraud.

In the course of the questioning, when Jethmalani alleged that the email id of Eknath Shinde (eknath.shinde@gmail.com) was fake and created on November 29, 2023, after the Thackeray faction was asked to furnish proof of sending the mail to Eknath Shinde. The mail was sent to Shinde on June 23, 2022, initiating action against him for failing to attend the crucial party meeting a day before.

Jethmalani said the email id did not exist in the state legislature’s diary, as mentioned by Prabhu. The diary had a different id. (See box.) Kamat objected to the remarks and said that the email id on which the letter was sent existed then and even the petition in the Sunil Prabhu Vs Eknath Shinde case was sent on the same id.

“What type of argument is this. You are suggesting that the id was manufactured in 2023, when it existed in 2022 and copies of the petition were sent on it. There is a record of the mail sent in 2022. Let us summon the person (Vijay Joshi, secretary of Thackeray group) who sent it,” Kamath said.

Kamat even said that the application (made to the speaker) was not supported with the affidavit and that it was filed only for the ‘gallery’.