Speaker's verdict big boost for Shinde in Sena vs Sena

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled on Wednesday that chief minister Eknath Shinde's party was the real Shiv Sena and turned down demands to disqualify either faction's lawmakers, marking a significant victory for the ruling coalition in the fractious battle for control of the regional outfit.

Narwekar's ruling - which came weeks after the Supreme Court fixed a deadline for him to decide on long-pending petitions filed by rival factions of the Sena -keeps the numbers in Maharashtra assembly intact, and Shinde's chief ministership safe.

The battle for control of the Sena, a case that will not only have ramifications for another ongoing feud between rival factions of the Nationalist Congress Party but also any future schisms in political parties, will now move to the apex court. Narwekar said the 10th schedule of the Constitution could not be invoked to use to quell intraparty dissent and indiscipline and turned down the demand to disqualify Shinde and his 38 lawmakers from the House.

He, however, also rejected the Shinde faction's plea to disqualify 14 members of legislative assembly (MLA) from the Thackeray faction, citing certain technical flaws. The pleas for disqualification of Thackeray's MLAs, he said, was sent to him through an unknown cell phone number, rather than by Sena whip Bharat Gogawale.

The decision sparked a political controversy. Former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray called the order "murder of democracy" and announced that he would challenge it in the top court.

Shinde welcomed it. "I have always fought against forces that compromised for political gains and did not have respect for people's mandate. If one has to protect democracy then the internal democracy of the party also has to be respected," he said.

The Sena suffered a vertical split in 2022 when Shinde and 39 other legislators walked out of the party then led by Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government.