In May last year, the Supreme Court (SC), ruling on a host of issues related to the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, asked Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide on the petitions filed by the rival factions seeking disqualification of legislators in opposite camps. Narwekar on Wednesday produced a ruling that has lobbed the ball back to the SC: The Speaker held that the faction led by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde was the real Shiv Sena but refused to disqualify the 14 MLAs belonging to the group led by Uddhav Thackeray. The Speaker’s ruling is on slippery ground when tested against the anti-defection law, which is built around the political party, not the legislative unit. The ruling has politics written all over it, which triggers the question if the Speaker, a political appointee, should continue to be the arbitrator in matters pertaining to the defection of legislators.
The Maharashtra Speaker concluded that the Shinde faction represents the real Sena by considering the legislative majority — the Shinde faction has 40 MLAs whereas the Thackeray group has 16 members. Narwekar has maintained that he could not ascertain which faction is the “real” party since the Sena constitution and leadership structure did not provide conclusive answers. However, the SC in May said the legislative unit has no existence independent of the political party. The recognised unit is the party, which fields candidates who contest on the party symbol and by asserting its programme. Narwekar, however, seems to consider the legislative party as the basic unit. This reading, which inverts the hierarchical relationship between a political party and its legislative unit, will be contested. The ruling may also influence the decision on the disqualification pleas related to the split in the NCP.
The political import of the ruling is that the Shiv Sena, as we know it, may cease to exist. The Shinde faction may stake claim to the Sena legacy, but can it win over the cadres since the party’s inheritance is the memory of Bal Thackeray? The Sena has been an extension of the Thackeray personality; can a new leadership set aside the claims of the Thackeray family and pitch for the party’s legacy? That’s the big battle both factions will be waging in the near future. However, the Sena battle should serve as a warning for all individual/family-centric political parties to set their house in order and streamline functioning, including holding organisational elections.
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