The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday knocked the doors of the Supreme Court alleging that its leaders Vinayak Raut and Rajan Vichare have been “illegally, arbitrarily, and unilaterally” removed by the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as a leader of the party in House and chief whip respectively.
Moreover, the Uddhav camp has challenged the appointment of Rahul Shivale as the Leader of the Shiv Sena in Lok Sabha from July 18 “at the behest of certain delinquent MPs who are guilty of anti-party activities”. CNN-News18 has accessed a copy of the fresh plea filed before the apex court by MPs Raut and Vichare.
The petitioners also claimed that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also didn’t bother to call for any explanation from the Shiv Sena or them, despite categorical requests in this regard. “It is unfortunate that Speaker, being such a high constitutional functionary has by his conduct perpetuated and precipitated anti-party activities…,” the petition reads.
Meanwhile, the top court on Tuesday agreed to hear on August 1 a fresh plea by the Uddhav faction against Election Commission proceedings on a petition by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led group for recognition as the real Shiv Sena.
The top court said it would tag the fresh petition and hear it together with pending ones on August 1. The ECI recently asked the rival factions of the Shiv Sena led by Thackeray and Shinde to submit documents by August 8 in support of their claims on the election symbol of the political party.
For the unversed, the Shiv Sena had parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena later tied-up with the NCP and Congress as part of the MVA to form coalition government in the state. Last month, Sena MLA Eknath Shinde along with 39 other party MLAs and some independents rebelled against the party leadership, leading to the collapse of the Thackeray-led MVA government.
Shinde was sworn in as the Maharashtra Chief Minister on June 30 and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as his Deputy.
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