Rahul Narwekar, the Maharashtra assembly speaker said that his office would approach the Election Commission of India to get the rules laid down by it which governs the political parties. He said that the approach would help him to decide whether the issue of disqualification of MLAs and also about the factions of the Shiv Sena’s whip would apply to the Shiv Sena MLAs.
The speaker at a press conference in Mumbai said, “Once we get the details from the EC, whether the intra-party elections have been held or not, whether the party has been running as per the norms of the Election Commission or as per the party’s constitution, we will study all this and give a decision.”
He also added, “While arriving at the decision, we would also look into the rules of disqualification, constitution, the Supreme Court guidelines and then give a ruling.”
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Rahul Narwekar proposed a move to study the Sena constitution to check whether it is according to the EC rules and has caused a flutter in the camp of Uddhav Thackeray.
The Election Commission had earlier ruled that Shiv Sena’s constitution, which was amended in 2018, was ‘undemocratic’.
The EC had presided over that the amendments were wrong as the “party constitution envisaged the party president to nominate the electoral college that was to elect him”. The EC had then made a judgment that since the Shinde group had the legislative majority, it gave the Shiv Sena name and party symbol to the Eknath Shinde coalition.
The Supreme Court had asked Rahul Narwekar to decide within a “reasonable” amount of time and the party asked the Speaker to decide within 15 days or a maximum of three months, referring to the Uddhav Thackray group’s claim. Narwekar said that he would like to give a ruling as soon as possible but said that the issue would take some time.
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