Have 'strong moral and constitutional' case, take early decision: Shinde camp to Narwekar on disqualification pleas

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. File Pic

The Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Friday said it had a "strong moral and constitutional case" and urged Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to take a decision on the disqualification pleas of MLAs at the earliest, reported news agency PTI.

The Shiv Sena split into the Uddhav Thackeray and Shinde factions last year, after which the former filed petitions with the Speaker seeking disqualification of several MLAs belonging to the chief minister's camp.

"While we understand the process and the time required to take this decision. We have a strong moral and constitutional case, backed by the will of the legislative party, parliamentary party, workers and voters of the Shiv Sena," the Shinde-led group said in a statement, reported PTI.

"Our politics is deeply committed to the values and principles of our late founder Hindu Hriday Samrat Shri Balasaheb Thackeray. Uddhav Thackeray misled us and compromised on our core value system," it added, reported PTI.

The statement said Uddhav Thackeray deceived the people of Maharashtra by not honouring their mandate post the 2019 Assembly polls, a reference to the break up of the several decade old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, which led to the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, reported PTI.

The Shinde group's statement said the Election Commission of India allotted it the name 'Shiv Sena' and 'bow and arrow', in the process recognising it as the original party founded by Bal Thackeray, reported PTI.

The decision of the Election Commission was on a "test on majority" as the MLAs supporting the Eknath Shinde group had got nearly 76 per cent of the votes polled for the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, while the Uddhav Thackeray faction got only 23.5 per cent of votes, it added.

In addition, the affidavits of workers and office bearers outweighed those with the Uddhav Thackeray faction, the statement added.

The statement claimed the ECI had, in scathing observations, called the (undivided) party constitution "undemocratic".

"We have full faith in the Supreme Court, which has granted us relief and justice in the past," the statement from the Shinde camp said, reported PTI.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on the Speaker for the delay in deciding the plea for disqualification of Shinde and several MLAs.

"Somebody has to advise the Speaker that he cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court," a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to apprise the court about the timeline for deciding the issue.

On September 18, the top court had directed the Maharashtra assembly speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has been consistently claiming Narwekar was delaying in arriving at a decision on the disqualification pleas.

(With inputs from PTI)