Maharashtra: Both Sena camps confident of SC verdict in their favour

Ahead of the judgment in the Maharashtra political crisis that the Supreme Court is slated to pronounce on Thursday rival Sena camps and their allies were confident of the verdict being in their favour The Uddhav Thackeray faction said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his government would go the Shinde group and the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP said the CM would not resign and they would stay on togetherThe petitions were filed by the Sena rival factions against each other last year The Thackeray group had demanded disqualification of 16 MLAs including Shinde under the antidefection law The governorrsquos call to conduct a floor test was also among other things challengedDuring one of the hearings early on Wednesday Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that the fivemember constitutional bench was slated to pronounce two judgments The apex courtrsquos registry and parties involved have confirmed that one of the cases to be decided on Thursday was about the Maharashtra crisis The other was about the Union Government and Delhi Government According to the listing for Thursday the CJI will read the operative part of the judgment after a verdict in the Delhi case is deliveredThere was split opinion on the verdict from the SC and its impact on the government and the rival Sena factions One popular understanding is that the CM would have to resign if he and other MLAs are disqualified and a new CM would have to be appointed However some experts said Shinde might take oath again after disqualification and be in the position for six monthsmdasha maximum period prescribed for getting reelected to either HouseAlso Read Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde recalls how he missed the bus to join the ArmyBut since disqualification would not allow him to contest the polls Presidentrsquos rule would be imposed or early Assembly elections called Last July the Shinde government got the support of 164 members crossing the halfway mark of 145The House strength would decrease by 16 if disqualification happens but it would also bring the majority mark down by the same number thus not creating a serious scare during the trust vote of a new government if anyReacting to the speculation Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said it was a foolish assumption ldquoWhy would he Shinde resign before or after the verdict What wrong has he done I can tell you very astutely that Shinde will continue to be our CM and we will contest the next elections under his leadershiprdquoThe other understanding is that the matter the disqualification in particular will be referred to the Speaker who might take his own time to decide itDeputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal who was at the centre stage in the absence of the Speaker when power changed hands contested this notion He was confident that the MLAs who he had served notices to then would be disqualified by the apex courtSpeaker Rahul Narvekar who assumed charge as presiding officer after the new government came in differed He said no other constitutional authority could deal with or decide matters that were supposed to be decided by the legislature and SpeakerShinde grouprsquos Sanjay Shirsat said their revolt was executed only after considering the legalities ldquoOurrsquos is the legal governmentThe fact is that if we are qualified the MLAs who are in the rival group would be disqualified because of the disciplinary action notices that the Shinde group which has been recognised as the original Shiv Sena has served themrdquoShiv Sena UBT spokesperson Sanjay Raut said the judgment will decide whether ldquodemocracy is alive or notrdquo in the country He said ldquoWe are not predicting what the Supreme Court will say tomorrow but for democracy tomorrow is important We will also get to see if there is pressure on the judiciary or notrdquo ldquoToday Pakistan is burning because there is no democracy alive there The SC decision will tell us if democracy is alive in our country or notrdquo he addedRaut also slammed Speaker Narvekar over his statement that only the Speaker had the power to decide on MLAsrsquo disqualification ldquoHis Narvekarrsquos statement is not important When the crisis happened no speaker was there The deputy speaker Zirwal had given the decision We have filed the case in SC and letrsquos see what happens tomorrow Thursdayrdquo he saidRaut also cast doubts on Narvekarrsquos recent meeting with Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju He asked whether the threehourlong meeting was about the verdict and wondered whether Narvekar knew about the judgmentThe MVA partnersthe Congress and Nationalist Congress Partymdashwere also hopeful of a favourable decision 164Support that Shinde got in House last year145Halfway mark of House strength