A day before the Supreme Court is slated to deliver its verdict on the disqualification plea against 16 MLAs of the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Thursday, both the ruling and the Opposition factions said they are confident that justice will be delivered.
Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut said, “Whether democracy is alive in this country or not will be decided tomorrow (Thursday). The verdict will also decide if our judicial system is functioning under any pressure. Will our Constitution burn like the one of Pakistan? We will get to know this tomorrow.”
He added, “Tomorrow’s court decision is very important. Tomorrow, the country will be judged.”
Raut further said, “We will get justice. If there is democracy left in the country, we will get justice tomorrow. We believe that the judiciary is independent.”
Raut also said Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar should resign from his post
Responding to Raut’s statement, Narvekar said, “Sanjay Raut makes such irresponsible statements because he has very little knowledge of the Constitution and has not read the provisions of the statute. I think people should forgive him (for his comments).”
Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said he has full faith in the judiciary and said Shiv Sena (UBT) has challenged the appointment of Speaker Rahul Narwekar too. “Whether an unconstitutional Speaker is sitting is also one of the issues before the Supreme Court. I don’t know how the Speaker can comment on the Supreme Court verdict with so much certainty,” Aaditya said.
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar said on Tuesday that as per the law, the decision to disqualify MLAs can be taken only by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and no other constitutional body can take that power away from the Speaker.
“If such a betrayal is legitimised, like the one that happened in Maharashtra, there will be political instability in the state. All parties will face problems. I have complete faith in the judiciary. The Chief Minister is illegal and unconstitutional. We waited for so many months and now we need to wait for 24 hours and the whole picture will be clear,” Aaditya said.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said the party expects the verdict to be in line with the 10th schedule of the Constitution. “All the 16 MLAs will be disqualified and this government will fall,” he said.
“The Supreme Court verdict will have a longstanding impact on the democracy and democratic process of the country. We expect that the verdict will be such which will strengthen the Indian Constitution,” said Mahesh Tapase, chief spokesperson of the NCP.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said they are hopeful that the verdict will be in their favour. “We are hopeful because our case is strong and we expect that the right order will be delivered. In fact, we should wait for the verdict and not speculate.”
Abdul Sattar, a minister in the Shinde cabinet, said, “Just like we got the Shiv Sena name and the party symbol, we will get a verdict in our favour. However, whatever the verdict is, we will welcome it.”
Although 40 MLAs had rebelled and switched to the Shinde camp, disqualification notices were served to only 16 MLAs. The reason is that when Shinde ‘hoodwinked’ Uddhav Thackeray on June 20, 2022, the former was accompanied by 11 MLAs who first went to Surat and later to Guwahati.
A day later, these 12 MLAs did not attend a meeting convened by Thackeray. So, initially, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena filed a petition seeking the disqualification of the 12 MLAs for violating the party whip. Later, they sent notices to four more MLAs, taking the total tally to 16 MLAs. Whereas, the total number of MLAs who pledged allegiance to Shinde rose to 40.