Maharashtra political row: Action moves to speaker’s chamber

A day after the Supreme Courtrsquos farreaching verdict on Maharashtrarsquos political situation the action has shifted to Speaker Rahul Narvekarrsquos chamber The Shiv Senarsquos Thackeray group asked the Speaker to decide on the disqualification of the 16 MLAs at the earliest It said the reasonable time as directed by the court could not go beyond three months The Shinde faction and the BJP shot back accusing the rivals of putting the Speaker under pressureOn Friday Uddhav Thackeray and his colleague Anil Parab decoded the judgment highlighting things that have gone in their partyrsquos favour CM Shindersquos MP son Shrikant Shinde and Thackerayrsquos nephew Advocate Nihar Thackeray interpreted the judgment to establish that the rival faction had created a misleading narrative to create a wrong perception about the governmentUddhav began the day with a scathing attack on Shinde and BJP ldquoThe lifeline given to them Shinde and others is interim The Speaker should decide on the matter at the earliest We will move the Supreme Court if there is any wrong decisionrdquo the exCM said adding that the reasonable time had been set at three months by way of directions given in a similar caseAlso Read Maharashtra political row Verdict brings a lot more to the ShindeBJP tableUddhav Thackeray with party colleague Anil Parab during a press conference on Friday PicPTIThackeray dared Shinde and his allies to resign and face a trial in the peoplersquos court ldquoIt is better to avoid the further deformation of Hindutva and morality The kind of bad name you are going to get when we approach the SC again in the disqualification matter and also in the matter of Election Commissionrsquos ruling will be beyond imagination So avoid it and let the people decide it the winner Letrsquos accept the mandaterdquo said ThackerayAccording to Parab the SCrsquos order was very clear in creating a framework for the Speaker He said Sunil Prabhu who was replaced by Bharat Gogawale will be treated as Whip and Ajay Chudhari who was replaced by Shinde will remain the leader of the legislative party which was the original Shiv Sena then headed by Thackeray Since the Election Commissionrsquos decision of approving the Shinde faction as the original party cannot be applied with a retrospective effect the situation on that particular day will be considered added ParabldquoIt is on record that two lsquowhipsrsquo issued by Prabhu were violated by not only 16 but the rest of the MLAs as well Wersquore giving Speaker Narvekar a letter to begin the process and end it quickly There is nothing to inquire because all evidence is available in the Vidhan Sabhardquo stated Parab adding that Shinde and his MLAs will go in 15 days because ldquoa split in the party cannot be a defence and they have exhausted the option of merging with the other partyrdquoThe CM pushed his son Shrikant and Thackerayrsquos nephew Nihar the Shinde Senarsquos lawyerleader upfront to present his partyrsquos position Industry Minister Uday Samant and senior MLA Sanjay Shirsat accompanied them at a media conferenceldquoThey are trying to create a wrong narrative by telling the people that the court has rejected all our prayers and accepted all that they had made The court rejected their prayers to reinstate the government to decide the Speakerrsquos election as illegal and give all the authority to the deputy speaker to recall all pending matters before the Speaker and to scrap the governorrsquos decision to invite Shinde to form the governmentrdquo said the Kalyan MPHe said if Thackeray was so interested then he could move the court time and again and countered the demand for the governmentrsquos resignation and holding elections ldquoThey are in a hurry but the election will take place when they are scheduled Why donrsquot 1415 MLAs they are left with resign and go to the people They were elected on alliance votes and polled almost 46 per cent each in 2019 The voters will show them their place in the bypollsrdquoNihar Thackeray said the truth had prevailed In response to Parabrsquos claim that his partyrsquos whip applied during the trust vote he said the court had asked the Speaker ldquoto recognise both the whip and the leader who are duly authorised by the Shiv Sena political party with reference to the provisions of the party constitution after conducting an enquiry in this regard and in keeping with the principles discussed in this judgmentrdquoDeputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the court had given all rights pertaining to the disqualification to the Speaker ldquoIt has been asked to do it within a specific period and hence the efforts to put the speaker under pressure do not fit a lsquofree and fairrsquo justice system I donrsquot think the Speaker will buckle under any pressure He is an expert lawyer and will decide the issue as per the law constitutional provisions and the Supreme Courtrsquos directivesrdquoPeople in the know said the lsquoinquiryrsquo part of the SCrsquos conclusion has given the speaker an opportunity to consume as much time in examining and hearing the multiple petitions and recording the individuals involved Since the hearing will be held like the ones conducted by the courts the crossexamination will also be allowed The schedule might stretch for a time longer than expected said a leader