New Delhi: Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde on Monday termed the Supreme Court’s relief to him and other dissident MLAs as the victory of Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva and the ideals of his mentor Anand Dighe. “This is the victory of Hindu hridaysamrat Balasaheb's Hindutva and the ideals of (the late) Dharamaveer Anand Dighe,” tweeted Shinde.
The remarks of Shinde, who is camping with the dissident MLAs in Assam’s Guwahati city, comes after the apex court kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11.
The apex court also sought responses to the pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Refusing to pass any interim order on the Maharashtra government’s plea that there should not be any floor test in the assembly, the Supreme Court said they can always approach it in case of illegality.
Meanwhile, Shinde’s son and party MP Shrikant Shinde said Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal had sent the disqualification notice to his father and 15 other dissident legislators “under pressure”, adding this is evident from the apex court’s order.
“The speaker has rights in the Assembly. He has the power if anyone goes against the whip in the legislature. It does not apply to anyone not coming for any meeting,” the news agency quoted the Kalyan MP as saying in Thane.
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“The ‘tughlaqi farman’ (the disqualification notice) was issued (by him) under pressure and the court has shown that today,” he added.
Shinde in his petition filed before the apex court on Monday said Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has lost the majority in the house as 38 of the 55 legislators have withdrawn their support to the coalition, news agency Asian News International (ANI) reported.
Earlier on Saturday, the Maharashtra legislature secretariat had issued summons to 16 of the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde.
The Maharashtra legislature secretariat sought written replies by the evening of June 27 to the complaints seeking their disqualification.
Earlier on June 21, a sizable number of MLAs, led by Shinde, had rebelled against the Maharashtra Chief Minister. The rebel MLAs had first moved to Gujarat’s Surat city and then to Assam’s Guwahati – both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states.