Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 4: The legality for the formation of the new government in Maharashtra headed by Eknath Shinde was completed on Monday with the chief minister winning the floor test on the second and last day of the special session of the state Assembly.
Shinde won the won the floor test with 164 members voting in favour of the trust vote and 99 against it while three members were absent in the 288-member state Assembly and one seat vacant. One more MLA of the Sena camp, Santosh Bangar, who wept for the former chief minister and the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray when he was forced to resign following the Shinde group’s rebellion, surprisingly voted in favour of the motion increasing the strength of the Shinde camp to 40 with only 14 more members left in the official group.
Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote was carried by a majority vote. After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
Amid the beginning of a legal battle between the two factions of the Shiv Sena — one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde — both groups of the party violated the whips issued by the other group for the Speaker’s election in the Maharashtra Assembly.
Meanwhile, in a jolt to Thackeray faction, the newly-elected speaker Narvekar re-installed Shinde as the “leader of the Shiv Sena Legislasture Party removing Ajay Chaudhary who was appointed the leader by Thackeray after the Shinde group’s rebellion. Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
Soon after winning the trust vote, Shinde while addressing the Assembly in an emotion choked voice blamed the Thackeray faction for revolt by his supporters and said the “unnatural alliance with the Congress” forced them to pat company with the Thackeray faction.
Remembering the period after the 2019 state elections, he said he was very disturbed at the way he was treated during the polls. “They (the Thackeray faction) must understand why such a big incident (the rebellion) took place. They should find out the root cause of it,” he said, adding that he was ready to be a “martyr” to save the party.
Shinde alleged that the Sena faction, led by Uddhav Thackeray, attacked his house, used derogatory language against the rebel MLAs and compared them with animals while they were camping in Guwahati. “On one hand you sent people to meet me and have a dialogue (after revolt) but on the other hand, abused me and pelted stones at my house. They compared us with animals, abused us and called us ‘living corpse’,” Shinde said.
Pointing at the problems faced because of the “unnatural” alliance between the Shiv Sena and the Congress, which formed the government under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), he said, “In the past two-and-a- half years, we faced some issues. Being in the Sena, we could not take action against those allied with Dawood Ibrahim. We could not laud Veer Savarkar, because we were with Congress.”
He said his faction has been labelled as “traitors” but they are not. “We were Shiv Sainiks, we are Shiv Sainiks and will continue to be Shiv Sainiks,” Shinde declared. “We are sainiks of late Balasaheb and Anand Dighe. Development and Hindutva are on our agenda.” He said Shiv Sainiks suffered in the MVA. “Some faced cases, some were facing FIRs. They used to come to me and cry…I used to give them funds from urban development.”
Shinde also claimed to have destroyed 16 dance bars that were “spoiling the life of the youth”. “I am the one who has vandalised 16 ladies’ bars. Hundred cases are registered against me. (However) I ensured the ladies’ bars remain shut.”
He thanked all Sena and Independent MLAs who backed him during his rebellion. “I am proud of these 50 MLAs. When we started this mission, none of them asked where are we going and how many days will it take. This is a historical moment in Maharashtra politics and, as Fadnavisji told me, 33 countries have taken note of this political development,” Shinde said.
The Shiv Sena on Monday said it was not surprising to see the BJP winning the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s election as the Sena was broken and “someone from the party” was pitted against it.
In satirical comments, an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ also said with the new government (led by CM Eknath Shinde) in the State, the issue of nomination of 12 MLCs from the governor’s quota will be resolved soon. The old file (sent by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government) will be replaced with a new one and it will be cleared by the governor within 24 hours, it claimed.
If “protectors of the Constitution” take a dual stand, these people can make any resolution and win any election, it said, without taking any name. It said following the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray from the CM’s post, there was no “state of law” left in Maharashtra. “Though this is a tough time, it too shall pass,” the Marathi daily said.
Meanwhile, the Thackeray faction moved Supreme Court against order of new Maharashtra Speaker recognising new party whip of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs led by Chief Minister. The top court will hear on July 11 fresh plea of the Uddhav faction against the Speaker’s decision on new party whip along with pending ones.
On the other hand, the legislative group leader Eknath Shinde and chief whip Bharat Gogawale after getting recognition from State legislative secretariat, moved petition to disqualify Sena MLAs of the official faction, including former CM’s son Aaditya Thackeray for violating the whip.
But the Shiv Sena Thackeray faction has maintained that the tenth schedule of the constitution gives no authority to the legislative secretariat to decide on the legislative party leader, but it is the authority of the party president.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday questioned the legitimacy of the faction led by Shinde and said the group cannot claim to be the original Sena.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Raut said these MLAs (of the Shinde group) should ask themselves some questions. They used the party symbol and all benefits that come along with it to win election, and then broke the same party. “We will definitely contest it in court. The Shinde faction left the Shiv Sena, then how can they claim that their group is the original party, and not the one led by Uddhav Thackeray. The Thackeray name is synonymous with the Shiv Sena,” the Rajya Sabha member said.