The verdict delivered by the Speaker of Maharashtra's Legislative Assembly on 10 January has given a jolt to former Chief Minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray and his Shiv Sena faction (UBT).
By declaring CM Eknath Shinde's faction as the real Shiv Sena, Rahul Narvekar has stirred the pot ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, that will soon be followed by the state's Assembly elections in October-November.
Both factions of the Shiv Sena had accused each other of defying the party’s whip over the election of the Speaker and the trust vote on 4 July 2022, while seeking the disqualification of MLAs.
The Speaker has not only given legitimacy to Shinde but also saved his membership in the House. But his faction is not too happy because the MLAs of the Thackeray faction have not been disqualified, and this could snowball into further complications.
Narvekar, whose appointment as the Speaker came as a shock to many, started his political career with the Shiv Sena and later shifted to the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party). He joined the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) ahead of the Assembly polls in 2019 and was given a ticket from the Colaba constituency in South Bombay.
He is the second-youngest person to be elected Speaker of any state in the country, the youngest being Shivraj Patil at the age of 42, some half a century ago in Maharashtra.
The Constitution of the Shiv Sena
That the matter should have been decided three months after the Supreme Court order while it took eight months is in itself a commentary. In May 2023, the apex court gave the responsibility of deciding on the disqualification petitions of the MLAs — 34 in total — from the two rival Senas to Narwekar. It had, at times, pulled up the Speaker and set a deadline — yesterday — for him to pronounce a verdict.
Thackeray’s party compared Narwekar's verdict to ‘match-fixing’. But the BJP, which is the power behind the throne, is joyous. Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who calls the shots, is insisting that the decision shows that the government is stable, contrary to what detractors might say.
The Speaker may have held that Uddhav Thackeray as the Shiv Sena chief had no powers to remove Shinde as the leader, as per the Constitution of the party, but since its creation by the late Bal Thackeray, the party founder has had all the powers. Bal Thackeray used to declare that he had the “remote control” of the government in his hands when the Sena-BJP came to power for the first time in 1995.
Hailed as the Hindu Hriday Samrat much before PM Modi, he used to call himself a “dictator” and once even said that he believed in thokshahi, not lokshahi. The word of the supreme leader was the law and what came from Matoshree (the Thackeray residence) is still considered as an aadesh (order).
The Speaker, however, held that the 2018 Constitution, which concentrated power in the hands of the party chief, is not on the Election Commission's record, and thus cannot be considered for the case.
Politics in Maharashtra is Witnessing a Unique Experiment
Shiv Sena was the oldest ideological ally of the BJP but the two parties drifted apart after the Assembly polls in 2019, with Thackeray joining hands with the Congress and the NCP to form the state government.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had played a key role in that development but his party too underwent a split last year with his ambitious nephew Ajit Pawar parting ways with the majority of its 50-odd MLAs. He was made the Dy CM. The case of the rival factions within the NCP is also going to be produced before the Speaker soon.
Amidst all of this, the BJP in Maharashtra has catapulted from number four to the number one position but has failed to have a complete sway over the 288-member Assembly. It secured 122 seats in the 2014 Assembly polls and 105 in the 2019 ones.
Politics in Maharashtra is witnessing a unique experiment for the BJP. Despite having most of the numbers, it is playing second fiddle to the 59-year-old Shinde on one hand, and 63-year-old Ajit Pawar on the other.
Some constitutional experts were expecting the disqualification of Shinde and 15 of his colleagues, insisting that the rebellion lacked numbers, and therefore a ‘fit case’ for disqualification. At least one Shiv Sena leader, Sushma Andhare, thought that Shinde’s days were numbered and Ajit Pawar would become the next CM.
The Ball is in the Voters' Court
While enlisting his support, Shinde told his Sena men that a Mahashakti was backing him. It was a euphemism for the BJP under PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, which proclaims itself to be the world’s largest political party.
Uddhav Thackeray himself got a scent of what was coming for his party given that a day before the Speaker pronounced his verdict, he held a press conference and launched a stinging attack on Narvekar for meeting the CM at his official residence. "How can a judge meet the accused just three days before declaring the verdict", was Thackeray’s question. He also moved the Supreme Court regarding the same.
With the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls around the corner, the ball is in the voters' court. The opposition, especially Thackeray’s party, is not demoralised, despite yesterday's setback.
Aaditya Thackeray said that he has "never seen a more shameless verdict of the tribunal that has murdered democracy. The regime of gaddars is against the constitution given to us by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar."
His sharp reaction shows that we can expect the Shiv Sena (UBT) to put up a fierce fight “against this disgraceful political fixed game”, as he put it.
(Sunil Gatade is a former Associate Editor of the Press Trust of India. Venkatesh Kesari is an independent journalist. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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