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Maharashtra Speaker says ‘Shinde faction real Shiv Sena’ | Top quotes
The Speaker emphasised the relevance of party's constitution in determining its leadership structure, crucial for identifying the authentic Shiv Sena faction.
In delivering the judgment on the Sena versus Sena case, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar stated on Wednesday that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction was the real Shiv Sena.
The Speaker emphasised the relevance of the party's constitution in determining its leadership structure, crucial for identifying the authentic Shiv Sena faction.
Following the Speaker's meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, prior to the verdict, the Uddhav faction already approached the Supreme Court, expressing concerns about potential bias and calling it a fixed match.
The top court had on May 11 last year directed the speaker to decide which was the real Shiv Sena. Later, it asked the speaker to give the verdict on the disqualification petitions by December 31. On December 20, SC allowed Narwekar an extension of 10 days.
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Two weeks ago, the speaker completed the hearing, spanning over 20 sessions, on the 34 petitions filed by the two camps – one led by Shinde and the other by Uddhav Thackeray. A team of officials and lawyers appointed by the legislature has already gone through the voluminous records of more than 2.67 lakh documents.
Here are the top quotes of the judgement:
- “In my view, the 2018 leadership structure (submitted with ECI) was not as per the Shiv Sena Constitution. Shiv Sena party chief as per the party Constitution can not remove anyone from the party.”
- “Uddhav Thackeray removed Eknath Shinde or any party leader from the party as per the party Constitution. So the removal of Eknath Shinde by Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022 is not accepted based on the Shiv Sena Constitution.”
- “The 2018 amended constitution of Shiv Sena cannot be considered as valid as it's not in the records of the Election Commission of India. As per Supreme Court orders, I can not 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.”
- “UBT faction has not placed any material on record or even suggest that any meeting of the Rashtriya Karyakarini was called for where any decision about the real political party was resolved.”
- “Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when rival factions emerged on 21st June 2022.”
