Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the Supreme Court verdict has exposed the role of the Governor, the Election Commission of India and the current regime, on Thursday.
Earlier, the Supreme Court said that Thackeray cannot be reinstated as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra as he resigned from the post voluntarily without facing a floor test.
However, it said that the then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to call for a floor test that ultimately toppled the Uddhav-Thackeray-led MVA government was not in accordance with the law.
The top court was dealing with the issue of disqualification of 16 MLAs belonging to CM Shinde’s Sena. The 16 MLAs, including Shinde, were sent disqualification notices for not attending a party meeting convened by the then CM Uddhav Thackeray despite the whip which was issued. In July, when Shinde sought a trust vote on the floor of the state legislative assembly, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine got the support of 164 out of a total of 288 MLAs and became the chief minister.
“In view of the judgement, if the present government has any morality left, then it should forthwith resign, just as I had tendered my resignation (in June 2022),” said Thackeray as per IANS, in his first reaction to the much-awaited verdict.
He said that the apex court judgement has also laid bare the role of the (then) Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and how his office was misused, “which is what we have been saying all along”.
On the ECI, he said that its not a ‘divine body’ and it cannot just “take away the name-symbol” of the (Shiv Sena) party founded by the late Balasaheb Thackeray.
He said that even the Shiv Sena decision on its Whip (Sunil Prabhu) was upheld and the Shinde faction’s Whip (Bharat Gogawale) was upheld by the SC.
“We shall now request the Speaker (Rahul Narwekar) to take the decision on the disqualification of the 16 MLAs as soon as possible,” the news agency quoted Thackeray as saying.
Senior leader Anil Parab said that as per the SC verdict, the Speaker must convene a session of the legislature and pronounce his decision on the disqualification of 16 MLAs, including Shinde, and said the government will collapse soon.
Earlier, the Sena (UBT) Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut, MP, said that this means that considering all aspects of the verdict, the present “illegal” Shinde government of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party should immediately resign on moral grounds.
