News Analysis India

Tag: Uddhav Thackeray

  • Maharashtra: MVA fields Sena’s Rajan Salvi for Assembly Speaker post against BJP’s Rahul Narvekar

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi on Saturday filed his nomination as the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) candidate for the post of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker, election for which will be held on July 3.

    On Friday, first-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar had filed his nomination for the post. While Narvekar represents Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai, Salvi is the MLA from Rajapur segment in Ratnagiri district.

    A special two-day Assembly session has been convened on July 3 and 4. While election for the speaker’s post will be held on Sunday, the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in whose cabinet BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is the deputy CM, will face the floor test the next day.

    The MVA alliance consists of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress. The government of these three parties collapsed on Wednesday following a rebellion by Eknath Shinde, who took oath as CM the next day.

    Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said Salvi is the opposition’s candidate for the election to the speaker’s post.

    Jayant Patil, Dhananjay Munde (NCP), Ashok Chavan (Congress), Sunil Prabhu (Shiv Sena) were prominent among those who were present with Salvi when he filed his papers here.

    The deadline for filing of the nomination papers was 12 noon on Saturday. The post of assembly speaker has been lying vacant since Nana Patole of Congress resigned in February last year to become the party’s state unit president.

  • Uddhav questions BJP’s 2019 move, says ‘Shinde not Sainik’ 

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI:  After stepping down as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that Eknath Shinde is not the CM from Shiv Sena. Thackeray made the comment during a visit to the Shiv Sena Bhavan, where he questioned the move that the BJP made in 2019.

    “I am really surprised and I have one question: If BJP was really interested in making a Shiv Sainik as the chief minister of Maharashtra, then why did they not agree to it in 2019?,” he said. “We asked Amit Shah to honour the power-sharing formula that was agreed upon, but they refused to do so, resulting in the birth of Maha Vikas Aghadi. If they had agreed to this earlier, today, there would have been BJP’s chief minister in the state,” Thackeray said.

    The former CM reiterated that Eknath Shinde is not a Sainik. Lamenting that the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and BJP betrayed and backstabbed him for power, Thackeray said, “The anger against me should not be used against Mumbaikars by developing a metro car shed at Aarey colony. These are green places that need to be protected.” He blamed the BJP for chopping several trees earlier, and added that they later planted many trees to bring in ecological balance.

    “We have also seen wild animals coming back. I am pained with the new government’s decision of allowing the metro car shed to come up,” Thackeray said. He added that the state government should resolve the Kanjurmarg metro project issue as well, now that BJP is in power in the state and the Centre. Thackeray also said that people should have the right to recall their MLAs and MP if they go against the voters’ wishes. “The rebel MLAs were first taken to Gujarat, then to Guwahati and finally to Goa. Democracy is on sale in the market,” Thackeray said.

    BJP hopes to make Sena a toothless tigerMumbai: Having brought down the Uddhav Thackeray government, BJP is now aiming to reduce Shiv Sena to a toothless tiger. The party hopes to achieve this before the BMC elections. The BJP already has a majority of Sena MLAs — 39 out of 55 — in its control. It is now eyeing to recognise the Eknath Shinde-led group as the real Shiv Sena. It seems to have started working on the plan as Shinde has asked the MLAs who are on Uddhav’s side to be with the majority faction or else face disqualification proceedings for ‘anti-party activities’. 

  • Amid Shiv Sena legacy war, Uddhav Thackeray ‘removes’ Eknath Shinde as ‘Sena leader’

    By Online Desk

    Amid the Shiv Sena legacy war between Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhab Thackeray, the latter on Friday removed the former from the post of Shiv Sena leader in the party organisation.

    In a letter issued by the party, Uddhav Thackeray said Shinde has been indulging in “anti-party activities” and has voluntarily given up his membership. “In exercise of the powers vested in me as the Shivsena Paksha Pramukha, I remove you from the post of Shivsena Leader in the party organisation,” the letter signed by Uddhav Thackeray said.

    Eknath Shinde, who led a revolt against Thackeray, had recently decided to name his faction “Shiv Sena Balasaheb”.

    Earlier, senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said a new government in Maharashtra under Shinde has been formed by the BJP with a group of MLAs that split the party, and asserted that the Sena is where the Thackerays are.

    ALSO READ | Shiv Sena is where Thackerays are; new govt formed by BJP with group that split Sena: Raut

    Taking a dig at Deputy Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Raut said had the BJP stuck to its word in 2019, it could have had the CM’s post for two-and-a-half years and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) experiment involving his party, the NCP and the Congress would not have taken place.

    What has the BJP achieved, Raut asked after Fadnavis took charge as the deputy chief minister. “We will try to expand our party under Uddhav Thackeray. A group split from the Sena has formed the government with the BJP,” Raut told reporters.

    He was responding to a question whether the new government under Eknath Shinde is a Shiv Sena-BJP government. Raut stressed that Shinde’s move of splitting the Sena will not weaken the party.

  • Had BJP agreed to 2.5 years of Sena CM, there would never have been MVA: Uddhav

    Sena and BJP had parted ways after the 2019 Assembly elections after the former demanded 2.5 years of Chief Ministership each for both the parties which the latter had not agreed to.

  • Uddhav Thackeray wonders why did BJP refuse to give CM post to Shiv Sena in 2019 

    By Online Desk

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday questioned BJP’s decision to install a “so-called Shiv Sainik” as Maharashtra chief minister when it did not keep its 2019 promise of rotating the CM’s post.

    Addressing a press conference at Shiv Sena Bhavan, Thackeray also asked the BJP not to betray Mumbai like it “betrayed” him.

    ALSO READ | Special two-day session of Maharashtra Assembly from July 3; Eknath Shinde likely to face trust vote

    Claiming that Eknath Shinde is not a Shiv Sena Chief Minister, Thackeray said, “The manner in which the government has been formed amd a so-called Shiv Sena worker has been made as Chief Minister, I had said the same to Amit Shah earlier as well that there should be a Shiv Sena CM for 2.5 years. This could have been done respectfully. The Shiv Sena was officially with you at that time.”

    “Had they done this earlier, there would’ve been no Maha Vikas Aghadi,” Thackeray added.

    He said he was saddened by new Maharashtra government’s move to relocate metro car shed to Aarey Colony from Kanjurmarg in Mumbai.

    ALSO READ | SC to hear on July 11 plea of Shiv Sena seeking suspension of Eknath Shinde, rebel MLAs from Assembly

    “Don’t project anger for me on Mumbaikars. Don’t change the proposal for the metro shed. Don’t toy with the environment of Mumbai.”

    “Let the metro car shed project be at Kanjurmarg and not in Aarey. Kanjurmarg is not a private plot. I am with the environmentalists and had declared Aarey as reserved forest. Wildlife exists in that forest,” he said.

    Thackeray described the rebellion in his party as a mockery of democracy and waste of people’s vote.

    (With PTI inputs)

  • Eknath Shinde: Former auto driver and Sena street fighter now in driving seat in Maharashtra

    By Online Desk

    MUMBAI: Eknath Sambhaji Shinde, who on Thursday became the 20th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, once drove auto-rickshaw to earn a living before rising as a formidable Shiv Sena leader.

    The 58-year-old leader who hails from western Maharashtra’s Satara district shifted to Thane, a Sena bastion adjacent to Mumbai, in his young days and started his political career in the same city.

    The four-time MLA, who held the urban development and PWD portfolios in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray, never hid his humble origins.

    The Eknath Shinde story: Auto driver who shook Shiv Sena’s foundations

    On the contrary, he made it a point to mention it to underscore how he has been indebted to the Shiv Sena and its founder, late Bal Thackeray for his rise in Maharashtra politics.

    Born on February 9, 1964, Shinde dropped out of college before completing graduation. After moving to Thane, he soon found his calling as one among thousands of Shiv Sena cadres who were ever-ready to hit the streets at the command of Bal Thackeray.

    Thackeray formed Shiv Sena in 1966 as a party fighting for the rights of the ‘sons-of-the-soil’ Marathi-speakers, and later aggressively championed the cause of `Hindutva’.

    ALSO READ | Did a film screening foretell the Eknath Shinde-Uddhav Thackeray split?

    As Shinde joined the Sena in Thane, he found a mentor in local party stalwart Anand Dighe. He became Dighe’s deputy and strengthened the party in Thane-Palghar region after Dighe’s sudden death in 2001.

    The sitting MLA from Kopri-Pachpakhadi in Thane city, Shinde was once a quintessential Shiv Sena street fighter.

    He faces dozens of criminal cases for charges such as ‘voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons’ and rioting, registered during various party agitations.

    He became a corporator in the Thane Municipal Corporation in 1997 and won his maiden Assembly election in 2004.

    In 2005 he was made the Sena’s Thane district chief.

    Currently he is in his fourth term as an MLA, while his son Dr Shrikant Shinde is the Lok Sabha MP from Kalyan in the district.

    WATCH |

    Shinde was appointed the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for a brief period in 2014 when the Sena initially refused to join the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet.

    The party later joined the BJP-led government, and Shinde became a cabinet minister.

    His closeness to Chief Minister Fadnavis set tongues wagging.

    It was also noted that the BJP contested elections to all civic bodies in Maharashtra in 2016 against the alliance partner Shiv Sena, except in Thane, Shinde’s home turf.

    When the Shiv Sena snapped ties with the BJP, and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray became chief minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with the NCP and Congress as allies after the 2019 elections, Shinde became a cabinet minister for the second time.

    ALSO READ | ‘Hanuman Chalisa effect led to fall of Uddhav government in Maharashtra’: MP minister

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the NCP handling the health ministry, it was Shinde-controlled Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation that set up healthcare centres in Mumbai and its satellite cities to treat coronavirus patients.

    His closeness to Fadnavis apparently made the Sena leadership suspicious.

    Shinde was made guardian minister of the Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district (along with Thane), which was seen as a put-down.

    Shinde, however, remained a key Sena leader, as he had developed a strong support base of his own.

    He is known to be always accessible to party workers and colleagues, and visits the homes of ordinary party workers often.

    After managing to take away majority of Sena MLAs with him and becoming chief minister, Shinde’s next challenge would be to wrest control the party organization from Uddhav Thackeray and his loyalists.

    (With agency inputs)

  • ‘Journey towards one’s decline begins when good fortune is misunderstood as accomplishment’: Raj Thackeray’s dig at Uddhav

    Uddhav Thackeray quit the top post following a rebellion by senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and the majority of the party MLAs.

  • Shiv Sena’s new suave face Aaditya Thackeray leads aggressive counter-charge against party rebels

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: As the Shiv Sena faces perhaps its worst crisis since its inception with a rebellion by majority of legislators, Maharashtra minister and the party’s youth wing leader Aaditya Thackeray is spearheading a counter-attack.

    The tone and tenor of the Thackeray family scion, usually known as the Sena’s new suave face, has changed in the last few days.

    When former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed to rebel legislators who are camping in Guwahati to return, their leader Eknath Shinde said while the Sena chief was seeking reconciliation, his son Aaditya had labelled them as “dirt from a nullah.”

    With as many as 39 Sena MLAs deserting the Thackerays, 32-year-old Aaditya has addressed party workers at multiple places, from Karjat in neighbouring Raigad district to Sena strongholds of Byculla, Kalina and Dadar in Mumbai.

    The Yuva Sena led by Aaditya has also been at the forefront of protests against the rebel MLAs.

    On the night when the Thackerays left `Varsha,’ the official residence of the chief minister, and moved back to their personal residence `Matoshree’, they received a grand farewell all through the route.

    To pacify swelling crowds, Aaditya again emerged out of Matoshree and waved at party supporters while showing his fist.

    In his speeches, he has been calling the rebel MLAs “traitors”.

    “Dirt has gone from the party. Now we can do something good,” he said on Monday.

    “When allegations (of the rebels) target his father, he is bound to spearhead the attack against the rebels and he is doing it,” Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande told PTI.

    Sena MLA Ravindra Waikar, known to be close to the Thackerays and who is still by their side, said there was anger against the rebels and Aaditya has been meeting party workers and rallying support.

    Sanjay Patil, a researcher with the Department of Civics and Politics in Mumbai, said Aaditya has been, in a way, leading the party for the last few months, as Uddhav Thackeray is plagued by health issues.

    The chief minister underwent a spine surgery last November and operated from home for several weeks.

    Aaditya also plays a key role in decision-making within the party, Patil said.

    In 2019, Aaditya became only the second person from the Thackeray family to contest polls.

    His aunt Shalini had contested an election on the ticket of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, led by his estranged uncle Raj Thackeray.

    After the Sena formed an unlikely alliance with Congress and NCP in 2019 after ditching the BJP, Aaditya Thackeray, a first-time MLA, was made minister in his father’s cabinet, and given charge of the Tourism, Environment and Protocol departments.

    “The recent aggression must be stemming from the do-or-die situation the party is facing now and also (it comes) at a time when attempts are being made to erase the identity of the party by people who have been close to his family,” Patil said.

    Since he became a minister, Aaditya has also faced criticism for moving around in Mumbai’s elite circles rather than connecting with the Sena’s mass base.

    Last month BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis called him a “Mercedes baby” who can not appreciate the struggle of the Karsevaks who took part in the agitation for Ram temple in Ayodhya.

    Thackeray had reportedly ridiculed Fadnavis over the latter’s claim that he was present when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.

    “These Mercedes babies, born with golden spoon in the mouth, never had to do any struggle, nor did they see any struggle,” Fadnavis had hit back.

  • Maharashtra crisis: Supreme setback floors Thackeray government

    By Express News Service

    Heavens won’t fall if the floor test does not happen in the Maharashtra Assembly today, Team Uddhav Thackeray argued in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The court, of course, thought otherwise. And the heavens didn’t fall, but the Thackeray government did, although not on the floor of the House.

    Shivraj Singh Chouhan & Others vs Speaker, Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly & Others, 2020

    A Bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta ruled that the floor test need not be deferred because the Speaker had not taken a decision on the disqualification of members of Assembly as per 10th Schedule of the Constitution, which is designed to prevent political defections prompted by the lure of office or material benefits or other like considerations
    The holding of trust vote “operates in a distinct field” from anti-defection law, the court said. “Holding a trust vote is necessary to ascertain whether the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister has the confidence of the House… It is a matter which can brook no delay since the authority of the government presided over by the Chief Minister depends on the Council of Ministers continuing to have the faith of the legislative body as a collective entity,” the court ruled
    Shiv Sena & Others vs Union of India & Others, 2019 

    A bench of Justice N V Ramana and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna held that the Governor can direct the floor test immediately to prevent horse-trading and to protect democratic values
    “In a situation wherein, if the floor test is delayed, there is a possibility of horse-trading, it becomes incumbent upon the court to act to protect democratic values. An immediate floor test, in such a case, might be the most effective mechanism to do so,” the bench said
    Express illustrationS R Bommai vs Union of India, 1994The landmark verdict by a nine-judge Constitution Bench said the Chief Minister’s refusal to face a floor test can be concluded as lack of majority and such refusal, prima facie, would indicate that the government does not enjoy the confidence of the legislature.

    Can the Guv direct floor test without the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers?Another grouse of Team Thackeray was that the Governor called for the floor test without even consulting the government.  On this, too, there’s a previous SC ruling that says the Governor can very much do that if he is convinced that the government has lost the majority

    Nabam Rebia & Bamang Felix vs Deputy Speaker, Arunachal Legislative Assembly, 2016

    Justice J S Khehar held that the Governor can exercise his/her constitutional powers, vested under Article 174, and call for floor test without the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers led by the Chief Minister if there are sufficient reasons to believe that the government has lost the confidence of the House

    Can the Governor call for immediate floor test?Before the big shake-up, Team Thackeray’s contention before the apex court was that floor test cannot happen when the Speaker is yet to decide on disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs. So, what is the legal position on this? Well, several previous rulings say the Governor is well within his right to direct immediate floor test even if a plea for disqualification of MLAs is pending.

  • ‘Not going away forever, will again sit in Sena Bhavan’: Uddhav’s parting note as CM

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who announced his resignation on Wednesday minutes after Supreme Court gave go ahead to floor test in the state assembly, said that he was not going away forever and will once again sit in Shiv Sena Bhavan.

    Thackeray, whose party’s internal revolt brought down the three-year-old MVA government, said he came to power in “an unexpected manner” and was “going out in a similar fashion”.

    Thackeray also announced his resignation as MLC. “I had come (to power) in an unexpected manner and I am going out in a similar fashion. I am not going away forever, I will be here, and I will once again sit in Shiv Sena Bhavan. I will gather all my people. I am resigning as the CM and as an MLC,” he said.

    ALSO READ | We have majority, confident of victory: Eknath Shinde

    Uddhav Thackeray became Chief Minister after Shiv Sena joined hands with Nationalist Congress Party and Congress to form the government in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena leadership had differences with its pre-poll ally BJP and wanted the post of Chief Minister.

    The MVA government in Maharashtra has been facing a political crisis after a revolt in Shiv Sena. The rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde had been camping in Guwahati.

    Uddhav Thackeray also expressed gratitude to NCP and Congress, allies in the coalition government. “I want to express my gratitude to the people of NCP and Congress that they supported me. From Shiv Sena, Anil Parab, Subhash Desai and Aaditya Thackeray, these people were only present when the proposal was passed while NCP and Congress people also supported the proposal,” he said.

    He also referred to Maharashtra cabinet decisions taken earlier day. “I am satisfied that we have officially renamed Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv – the cities named by Balasaheb Thackeray,” he said.

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave its go ahead for floor test in Maharashtra Assembly tomorrow as it refused to stay the state Governor’s decision which was challenged by Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu.

    ALSO READ | Taking Balasaheb’s Hindutva, Shiv Sena forward: Shinde

    “We are not staying tomorrow’s floor test,” the Supreme Court bench said.The court also issued notice on Shiv Sena Chief Whip Sunil Prabhu’s plea and said that tomorrow’s floor test will be subject to the outcome of the present petition. The court will hear his plea on July 11.

    A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala had earlier in the day reserved the decision on the plea filed by Sunil Prabhu challenging Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s direction to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to hold the floor test on June 30 (Thursday).

    Supreme Court also allowed jailed NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh to participate in the proceedings of the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly tomorrow.

    Since Malik and Deshmukh are in judicial custody of the Enforcement Directorate and CBI, both the agencies were directed to escort them to the Assembly to participate in floor test and bring them back to the judicial custody.

    Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had asked the Uddhav Thackeray government in the state to prove a majority on the floor of the House on June 30 stating that the “present political scenario” unfolding in the state paints a “very disturbing picture.”

    The Governor wrote to the state Assembly secretary to convene a special session of the State Assembly tomorrow with the only agenda of a trust vote against CM Thackeray.

    BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had met the Governor on Tuesday evening after returning from Delhi, and submitted a letter to him demanding an immediate floor test.