Almost an hour after the Supreme Court’s decision over the Maharashtra political crisis, former Chief Minister of the state Udhav Thackeray said that he would have been the Chief Minister today if he never had resigned in the first place. “I would have been the chief minister had I not resigned,” Thackeray said while schooling the incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Dy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The SC held today that it cannot order the restoration of the Uddhav government as he resigned without facing a floor test. The Court also said that the then Governor was right in inviting Eknath Shinde-led coalition to form the state government as former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray had already resigned.
“Petitioners argued for restoration of status quo ante. However, Thackeray did not face the floor test. Had Uddhav Thackeray not resigned, the status quo could have been restored,” the Court said.
The Court meanwhile also noted that the then Governor’s decision for a floor test was wrong and Speaker was wrong in appointing a whip of the Eknath Shinde group. Referring to former Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the Court said, “Governor ought not to have relied on the letter. The letter did not indicate that Uddhav Thackeray lost support. Exercise of discretion by the Governor was not in accordance with the Constitution.”
“Nothing in any of the communications relied on by the Governor indicated that the dissatisfied MLAs wanted to withdraw support to the government. Neither the Constitution nor the law empower the governor to enter the political arena and play a role either in inter-party or intra-party disputes,” it added further stating that floor test cannot be used to resolve internal party disputes.
Uddhav Thackeray took cognizance of the ruling and attempted to teach ‘ethics’ to the incumbent Chief Minister and the Dy Chief Minister. He said that CM Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis should resign if at all they have any ethics left. “I am not fighting for myself, we have to save democracy. If the current Maharashtra CM and deputy CM have any ethics, then they should resign,” said Thackeray while interacting with the media on May 11.
#WATCH | If the current Maharashtra CM and deputy CM have any ethics, then they should resign: Uddhav Thackeray #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/wqNPrnG36F
— ANI (@ANI) May 11, 2023
Notably, Thackeray was with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar while he was talking to the media after the SC’s decision on Maharashtra’s Political crisis. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav met Thackeray today at his residence in an attempt to strengthen the opposition cabal against the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Kumar and Yadav are also slated to meet Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar in the evening.
Thackeray disregarded ‘ethics’, ‘Hindutva ideology’ to form government
While Thackeray schooled the incumbent Maharashtra CM and his Dy CM over ‘ethics’, it seems that he forgot who was the one who led to this huge political drama in the state, ultimately resulting in the creation of a massive divide in the Shiv Sena party. Uddhav Thackeray who led the party after the death of its supremo Balasaheb Thackeray was a huge supporter and political ally of the BJP until it disregarded its ‘ethics’ and ‘Hindutva ideology’ to join hands with the Congress and the NCP to form the government.
The three parties after the 2019 state elections came together to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi or the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi and then on 28 November 2019, Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The alliance between Shiv Sena and BJP was formed in the year 1989 and was temporarily broken in the 2014 elections, although it was quickly reformed. The alliance continued till 2019 until Thackeray signalled a significant departure from its traditional pro-Hindutva stance and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress for power.
The MVA government however managed to rule only for around 2.5 years as Eknath Shinde, a senior Shiv Sena figure and dissident MLA then departed with 11 other MLAs for Surat in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat. Thackeray was informed by Shinde that he had the backing of more than 40 MLAs, and he was pushed to sever the partnership. Thus the party broke into two factions- the Shinde faction and the Thackeray faction over ideological differences. The Shinde faction who still believed in the Hindutva ideology got back in alliance with the BJP and formed a new government in June last year.
Nitish Kumar also broke alliance with BJP last year
Interestingly, Nitish Kumar who was with Uddhav Thackeray while the latter talked to the media also has a history of ditching the BJP for power in the state of Bihar. In August last year, CM Nitish Kumar announced that his party, Janta Dal United was breaking the alliance with the BJP. The party had broken its alliance with the BJP earlier also. It walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2013 in protest against the announcement of Narendra Modi as the PM candidate.
However, after a brief affair with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nitish Kumar re-entered an alliance with BJP in 2017. After breaking the alliance with the BJP, JDU garnered support from the RJD and Congress and formed a new government. Recently, Nitish Kumar also said that he would prefer to die rather than think of rejoining hands with the BJP in the state. He also said that “going back to the NDA in 2017 was a mistake”.
At present, Nitish Kumar is working for the Opposition unity at the national level. He met Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha and then met former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray later today. He is also slated to meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar to garner strong support ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.
