SC judgement on rebel MLAs should come before EC order, says Thackeray

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday demanded that the Election Commission of India (EC) not give its verdict on which faction of the Sena was entitled to the original name and party symbol till the Supreme Court gave its judgement on the disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs, including CM Eknath Shinde. Thackeray was speaking at a press conference at his residence ‘Matoshri’ in Bandra East.

“There is only one Shiv Sena and that is ours,” he said. “They (Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena led by Shinde) have left the party and are liable to be disqualified as per the provisions of the Constitution and the anti-defection law. As the hearing before the ECI has concluded, we request the commission to defer its ruling till the SC verdict on the disqualification of the rebels.” Thackeray also underlined the fact that the conflict reached the SC before the rebel group took the party name and symbol case to the EC.

Raising the question of what would happen if the EC gave a verdict in favor of the rebel group and the SC later disqualified them, the Sena (UBT) chief said that this was the reason many experts had opined that the EC should not give its verdict before the SC judgement. He also expressed his unhappiness about the EC’s decision to freeze the party symbol and allot different symbols to the Sena factions. “BSS didn’t fight a single bypoll, not the Andheri one and not the recent bypoll in Pune,” he said. “What then was the purpose of the EC’s decision to freeze the party symbol and name?”

Thackeray also came down heavily on the claim of the Shinde faction that it was MLAs and MPs that made up the party. “It is the political party that gives out the A and B forms required to fight elections on the party symbol and name,” he said. “A political party includes the parliamentary party, legislative party and the organisation. If we begin recognising MPs or MLAs as the political party, it will be a big threat to democracy. Any top businessman can then engage in a ‘financial understanding’ with MPs or MLAs and become the prime minister or chief minister.” Thackeray added that the EC was the gatekeeper of democracy and needed to save it when it was under threat.

Taking a dig at the BJP, which formed a government with the Shiv Sena rebels in Maharashtra after the split, Thackeray raised another question related to Shinde’s statement. “The BJP won only two seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha election,” he said. “If both those elected MPs had joined the Congress, would you have said that the BJP as a party was finished? The EC now has to decide which comes first, a political party or elected representatives who won on the A and B forms given by the party.”

‘EC approved amendments in Sena constitution’

Anil Desai, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP in the Rajya Sabha, rubbishing the Shinde faction’s claims that the party constitution had been changed “illegally”, explained how the EC had given approval to the amendments and appointments of party leaders after the organisational elections in January 2018.

“Organisational elections were held in the party’s national executive meeting on January 23, 2018,” he said. “All procedure was followed. Applications for various posts, including those of party president and other office-bearers, were invited. The necessary amendments in the constitution of the party were made with the approval of the national executive and representative council.

“After the meeting and election of the party president and other office-bearers, all the documents related to this and the amendment in the constitution were submitted to the EC, which then gave its acceptance receipt. So the Shinde faction’s claim that we changed the constitution illegally is baseless.”