Maharashtra Assembly Speaker pulls up both Shiv Sena factions

Mumbai: Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday expressed fear that he may not be able to conclude the Shiv Sena disqualification petitions before the deadline of December 31 set by the Supreme Court and blamed both Shiv Sena factions for it.

He also expressed displeasure over the answers given by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sunil Prabhu during his cross-examination and pointed out that he was giving long and irrelevant information. The Speaker urged both sides to speed up proceedings so that he can conclude it before the deadline.

The Speaker is hearing disqualification petitions against 40 MLAs, including chief minister Eknath Shinde, for alleged anti-party activities. The Shinde faction has filed disqualification petitions against 15 MLAs from the Thackeray faction. The Supreme Court has directed the Speaker to give his decision before December 31.

Prabhu, who was appointed as the whip by the Thackeray faction, has recorded his evidence in the case. He said that he issued a whip dated June 21, 2022 to all Shiv Sena MLAs directing them to attend a meeting called by party president Uddhav Thackeray. The MLAs who did not attend the meeting were considered missing and disqualification petitions were filed against them, he said.

In his cross-examination, Mr. Prabhu admitted that the said whip, asking the MLAs to attend the meeting on June 21, 2022, was actually issued on June 20. However, it was dated June 21, 2022 because it was almost midnight when it was issued.

Mr. Prabhu also informed that the said whip was physically served on 12 MLAs, including himself, who were present in the legislative party office that day. The other MLAs included Sunil Raut, Rahul Patil, Udaysingh Rajput, Ramesh Korgaonkar, Ravindra Waikar, Prakash Phatarpekar, Ajay Chaudhary, Bhaskar Jadhav, Rajan Salvi, Vaibhav Naik and Sanjay Potnis.

Explaining the reason for issuing such a whip, Mr. Prabhu said that he was asked by the party president Thackeray to call an urgent meeting because some of the MLAs had gone missing. When advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who is appearing for the Shinde faction, further questioned him, Mr. Pabhu did not specify the names of the MLAs who had gone missing, but said the MLAs absent for the meeting were considered missing.

Jethmalani argued that it will be eventually proven that the said whip asking MLAs to attend the meeting was never prepared and the document submitted as whip is fraudulent. He said none of the 40 MLAs from the Shinde faction had received such a whip.

Interestingly, some of the 39 MLAs who are supporting Shinde, had attended the June 21, 2022 meeting chaired by Mr. Thackeray. They joined Shinde subsequent to the meeting.

During the proceedings, the Speaker pointed out that Prabhu is not giving specific answers to the questions and instead giving long answers with irrelevant information. “For every question he is giving answers in multiple paragraphs. If his answers are specific, we can finish his cross-examination earlier. But he is giving long answers and irrelevant information.”

Thackeray faction’s lawyer Devdatt Kamat also suggested to Prabhu to give answers specific to questions and not to give information that has not been asked.

Advocate Jethamalani also raised objection to Mr. Prabhu’s answers stating that he is giving irrelevant answers and therefore he had to ask the same questions repeatedly, which is wasting time.

The Speaker rapped both sides and said that they have to bear in mind that the proceedings have to be concluded before December 31. He said he will continue to hear the matter even during the winter Assembly session in Nagpur for at least 10 days.

“If we continue at this speed, I do not think that we can conclude before the deadline. Both of you (Shinde and Thackeray factions) told the Supreme Court that you want the decision expeditiously. You say one thing before the Supreme Court and then take your own time before the Speaker. Please understand my position. Please understand my position and try to move things faster,” he said.