“Narendra Modi and Uddhav Thackeray met in June 2021. At that time, Uddhav Thackeray had promised Modi that he would leave the Mahavikas Aghadi and form the government with the BJP,” revealed Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar, the Shinde faction MLA while the Shiv Sena MLA disqualification hearing was underway. Deepak Kesarkar was cross-examined after Uday Samant in the Assembly on 11th December. He brought up the behind-the-scenes events that took place to form the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance at that time.
The hearing of the Shiv Sena MLA disqualification case is underway before Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar. Uday Samant was cross-examined on Monday morning (11th December) and after that, Cabinet Minister Deepak Kesarkar was cross-examined.
“I raised the issue of Shiv Sena Party’s objectives and ideology. I had changed Uddhav Thackeray’s mind by saying that BJP is a like-minded party and we should go with the alliance,” Kesarkar said while in the Assembly.
As per the Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, the then-chief minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on 8th June 2021. Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister, and Ashok Chavan, a Cabinet Minister, were both present. The three leaders’ meeting with Prime Minister Modi came to an end. Following that, Modi and Thackeray had a meeting.
Uddhav Thackeray was going to join hands with the BJP and leave the Maha Vikas Aghadi. He had also sought 15 days after his meeting with Prime Minister Modi. However, he arranged to send a message to Prime Minister Modi through me to ask for more time. He wanted some time to explain the decision to the alliance members. I arranged for his message to reach Delhi. Most of the Shiv Sena leaders wanted to be in alliance with BJP, Kesarkar revealed.
Kesarkar further asserted that Uddhav Thackeray took a lot of time in making the decision and hence, he disclosed the information to some senior party leaders including Subhash Desai, Anil Desai and Eknath Shinde. “I asked them to request Uddhav Thackeray to decide at the earliest”, Kesarkar said in cross-examination.
The Supreme Court on 30th October ordered Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide on the disqualification petitions against Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and MLAs supporting him by 31st December. Earlier to that, the court had pulled up Narwekar for delaying the adjudication of the disqualification petitions. The court said it would fix a timeline if the speaker fails to submit a revised schedule expediting the process.
The court also issued a warning that a decision on the disqualification pleas should taken before the next assembly elections, otherwise, the whole process would become pointless.
After Shinde and 39 MLAs broke away from the parent party and sided with the BJP to form the government in 2022, the Sena factions filed an abundance of disqualification petitions against each other.
In July, the speaker summoned 40 MLAs from the Shinde-led Sena and 14 from the Thackeray faction to respond to disqualification petitions filed against them. A total of 54 MLAs were served with the notices.
On May 11, this year, the Supreme Court determined that Shinde would remain as Maharashtra’s chief minister. It also stated that it could not reinstate Thackeray’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government because he chose to resign without facing a floor test in the aftermath of Shinde’s rebellion.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) however accused Narwekar of purposefully delaying a decision on the disqualification petitions.
