Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 10: As Maharashtra waited with bated breath the verdict of the Supreme Court on Thursday in the Sena Vs Sena case that may influence the future of the Eknath Shinde-led Sena-BJP government, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction leader Sanjay Raut launched a broadside against Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar on Wednesday, questioning whether he was trying to “influence” the apex court’s decision.
Raut’s reference apparently was to the recent ‘closed-door meeting’ Narvekar had with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on May 2 and also criticised the Speaker’s tour of London slated on Thursday just when the Supreme Court was due to give its judgement in the much-anticipated verdict on the disqualification petition of the 16 legislators of the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
“Does Rahul Narvekar already know of the Supreme Court’s judgment on disqualification of legislators after meeting the Law Minister for over three hours? Is this the reason why he is going on a tour of London at this moment, when the SC verdict is due?” asked the Sena (UBT) leader. Narvekar has clarified that his London programme was pre-planned and had nothing to do with the timing of the SC judgement.
The Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s job and his government will be on the line when the Supreme Court announces the all-important verdict. The Supreme Court will decide whether Shinde and 15 other MLAs should be disqualified for revolting against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in June last year.
Thackeray had asked the top court to step in after Shinde, backed by the opposition BJP, split the Shiv Sena and led most of the MLAs to form a new government. If Shinde is disqualified, he will have to resign as Maharashtra Chief Minister and his government will be disbanded.
Whichever side has greater numbers – a volatile equation depending on whether any MLAs from either side change sides – will then stake claim to a new government.
The decision will be delivered by a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud who have clustered eight petitions on the face-off. Senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued for Uddhav Thackeray’s team in the court while Harish Salve, Neeraj Kaul, and Mahesh Jethmalani represented Eknath Shinde’s camp.
A day before the verdict, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule claimed the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance has 184-plus votes in the 288-member assembly and can prove its majority if needed. Arvind Sawant, an MP from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, said, “This is a fight to save the constitution and democracy. The law is with us.”
Before the hearings in the case ended in March, the court had asked Singhvi to explain how Thackeray’s government could be restored when he had resigned as Chief Minister instead of facing a vote in the assembly.
Ruling on the tussle in February, the Election Commission of India, however, had recognised the Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena because a majority of the sitting MLAs are with the group. The ECI had also allotted the Shiv Sena party name and its bow-and-arrow symbol to Shinde faction and Thackeray’s smaller faction was given the name Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the symbol of a flaming torch.
Earlier, Narvekar had said the disqualification of MLAs for violating the anti-defection law was solely within the jurisdiction of the Speaker and no other body could interfere with this right. Raut took umbrage at the Speaker’s remarks, stating that while the Uddhav Thackeray camp believed in the Constitution of the country, there was a sense of scepticism about the outcome. He further claimed that the decision to disqualify the MLAs or not actually belonged to Narhari Zirwal, who was the acting Speaker at the time of Shinde’s intra-party revolt which split the Shiv Sena in June last year.