Uddhav Thackeray faction moves SC against Maharashtra speaker's 'real' Shiv Sena ruling

The Shiv Sena faction, led by former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, has moved the Supreme Court against the recent ruling of Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar declaring that the chief minister Eknath Shinde-led faction is the "real" Shiv Sena.

The plea filed before the apex court also questions the dismissal of the disqualification petitions filed against CM Shinde and other MLAs of his camp, who were accused of anti-party activities.

On 10 January, the speaker held that the group led by Shinde was the real Shiv Sena as it commanded a majority in the legislature and also in the party’s national executive.

Narwekar also rejected the changes in the leadership structure by Thackeray in 2018, saying they were not in conformity with the Shiv Sena Constitution of 1999, nor was there a record of these amendments with the Election Commission.

Further, the speaker held that the then chief whip Sunil Prabhu ceased to reflect the will of the party to continue in the post, as the new chief whip Bharat Gogawale was the validly elected chief whip after the rival faction emerged in the party on 21 June 2022.

The speaker's much-awaited verdict came as a major blow to Uddhav Thackeray, who lost the original Shiv Sena founded by his father, the late Balasaheb Thackeray, to Shinde. With the cross-petitions of both sides being dismissed by the speaker, Thackeray’s legislative flock of 13 MLAs — among them his son and ex-state minister Aditya Thackeray — have not been disqualified and will continue until the remainder of their terms.