Immediately after two more Shiv Sena MLAs reached Guwahati and joined the Eknath Shinde group in Hotel Radisson Blu, the rebel MLAs have sent a letter the deputy speaker of Maharashtra assembly reaffirming their position. In the letter signed by 37 Shiv Sena MLAs, they have stated that Eknath Shinde will remain as the leader of the legislative party, and Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as the chief whip of the party.
The copy of the letter has also been forwarded to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Secretary to the Legislative Council Rajendra Bhagwat. In the letter sent to the deputy speaker, the MLAs have said that Eknath Shinde was appointed as the leader of Shiv Sena legislative party on 31 October 2019, and he continues to be on the same post. It was proposed by Mahad MLA Bharat Gogawale and seconded by Ambernath MLA Balaji Kinikar.
#Maharashtra | The letter has the signatures of 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and a copy of the letter has been sent to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, and Secretary to the Legislative Council Rajendra Bhagwat. pic.twitter.com/95MtEbSfDA
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2022
Further, the MLAs have stated that Bharat Gogawale has been elected and appointed as the chief whip of the party. Along with this, the appointment of Sunil Prabhu to the post has been cancelled with immediate effect, the letter stated. The resolution was proposed by Kalyan West MLA Vishwanath Bhoir and seconded by Bhiwandi Rural MLA Shantaram More.
The letter contains the names and signatures of the 37 Shiv Sena MLAs currently staying at Hotel Radisson Blu in Guwahati. The last two names in the list are Dadaji Bhuse and Sanjay Rathod, who reached Guwahati today evening. This shows that the letter was already ready and other MLAs had probably already signed, and immediately after the two MLAs arrived, their signatures were taken and the letter was sent to Mumbai.
The letter was forwarded to the deputy speaker by Eknath Shinde, who said that he is sending a copy of the resolution passed on 23rd June reaffirming appointment of Shinde as leader of the legislative party and further appointment of Bharatshet Gogawale as the chief whip of the party.
With 37 MLAs, the rebel camp has now two-third of total Shiv Sena MLAs, and therefore they can’t be disqualified from the assembly. If the deputy speaker does not accept their demand, they can form a new party, and the speaker of the assembly will have to accept it. It is notable that the deputy speaker has already said that Shiv Sena’s move to remove Eknath Shinde from the post of leader of legislative party is valid. After Shinde moved to Surat with rebel MLAs on June 21, the party had removed him from the post, and named Ajay Choudhary as the new leader.
In the meanwhile, Eknath Shinde had also said that the party’s chief whip Sunil Prabhu ordering all MLAs to present for a meeting was illegal, as whips can be issued for assembly sessions only, not party meetings. “We know your tricks as well as the law. According to the tenth schedule of the Constitution a whip is required for legislative works and not for the meetings of the legislature party. There are countless judgements of the Supreme Court about this”, he tweeted.
Reacting to the party’s attempt to disqualify 12 MLAs including himself, Shinde added that the party can’t threaten to take action against 12 MLAs. He reiterated that they are the real Shiv Sena and real Shiv Sainiks of honorable Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.
कायदाही जाणतो, त्यामुळे असल्या धमक्यांना भीक घालत नाही. तुम्ही संख्या नसताना अवैध गट तयार केला म्हणून तुमच्यावरच कारवाईची आमची मागणी आहे.
— Eknath Shinde – एकनाथ शिंदे (@mieknathshinde) June 23, 2022
Shinde said that they don’t pay attention to such threats as they know the law, and they are demanding an action for creating an illegal group when they don’t have the numbers.
