Advantage CM Shinde: SC Allows EC To Take A Call On 'Original' Shiv Sena

The Supreme Court today allowed Election Commission to go ahead with the hearing of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group's plea seeking recognition as the real Shiv Sena.

The EC is also expected to decide on the matter of the allocation of the party's 'bow-and-arrow' poll symbol to the Shinde camp.

Justice D Y Chandrachud, heading a constitution bench, rejected the plea of the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction seeking to restrain the EC from deciding the Shinde group's claim over the original Shiv Sena.

“We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission,” the bench also comprising Justices M R Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha said.

The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government had collapsed after Eknath Shinde and 39 other legislators revolted against the Sena leadership for 'forming an unholy alliance with the NCP and Congress and abandoning the Hindutva cause', of which the party was known to be a vociferous supporter.

Shinde was sworn in as the CM on 30 June along with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

On 23 August, the Supreme Court had referred to a five-judge bench the petitions filed by the Thackeray and Shinde-led factions raising several constitutional questions related to defection, merger and disqualification.

It had asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) not to pass any orders on the Shinde faction’s plea that it be considered the “real” Shiv Sena and be granted the party’s poll symbol.

A bench headed by the then Chief Justice N V Ramana had said the batch of petitions raise important constitutional issues relating to the 10th schedule of the Constitution pertaining to disqualification, power of the speaker and governor and judicial review.

The 10th Schedule of the Constitution provides for the prevention of defection of the elected and nominated members from their political parties and contains stringent provisions against defections.

The Thackeray faction had earlier submitted that party MLAs loyal to Shinde can save themselves from disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution only by merging with another political party.

The Shinde group had contended that the anti-defection law is not a weapon for a leader who has lost the confidence of his own party.

(with inputs from PTI)