Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, while announcing his verdict on disqualification matter, said the faction led by now CM Eknath Shinde was the real Shiv Sena at the time the rival factions emerged. He also rejected the disqualification pleas against Shinde Sena MLAs. Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar has murdered democracy, adding that his party will approach the Supreme Court in the matter. "We request the Supreme Court to clear this matter before elections. We want to stress that the Shiv Sena will not end. People will not accept Shinde's Sena. The order was pre-decided and it was clear when the Speaker and CM met," he said. Uddhav further said the Speaker, by holding Bharat Gogawale as the valid Whip of Shiv Sena, has disrespected the Supreme Court. "Who is the speaker to decide on the constitution of our party? If Shinde thinks that he ended family rule. His slavery has begun," he added.
Pronouncing his order, Speaker Rahul Narwekar said that the 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena has to be taken into consideration as the amended 2018 constitution was not placed before the Election Commission. The 1999 constitution of Shiv Sena removed the concentration of power from the hands of the party chief. However, the amended constitution in 2018 put the power back into the hands of the party chief.Based on this, the Speaker said that Uddhav Thackrey, being the Shiv Sena pramukh (president), did not have the power to remove Eknath Shinde as the leader of the legislative party. The Uddhav Thackeray faction had sought disqualification of Shinde faction MLAs on grounds that they did not attend the legislature party called by then chief whip Sunil Prabhu on June 21. However, the Shinde camp had passed a resolution appointing Bharatshet Gogawale as the chief whip.On this, the Speaker said that Sunil Prabhu had no authority to call the legislature party meeting and the Uddhav faction's submission that the rival MLAs did not come for the meeting will have to be rejected. The verdict comes 18 months after Eknath Shinde, along with over 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, rebelled against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which included the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress as well. Eknath Shinde then joined hands with the BJP and became the new Chief Minister, with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.