Shiv Sena moves Supreme Court, challenges guv’s nod on CM pick

NEW DELHI: Continuing to pepper rebel Shiv Sena MLAs with constitutional litigation, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction on Friday filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court challenging the governor's June 30 decision inviting rebel Sena leader Eknath Shinde, enjoying support from BJP, to form government in Maharashtra.
The Thackeray-led Sena, thinned in strength in House after 39 of its 55 MLAs rebelled led by Shinde, through its general secretary Subhash Desai in its writ petition said since the disqualification proceedings were pending against all 39 rebel MLAs, who admittedly have not formed a separate group and merged with another party, their votes could not have been counted.
Desai said under the tenth schedule, a faction of a political party comprising two-third or more of its MLAs could breakaway and merge with another party to escape disqualification. In the present case, the rebels, even if constituted two-third of the strength of the original party, have not merged with another party, and hence are liable to be disqualified.
Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat mentioned Desai's petition for early hearing before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari, which said that this petition would be heard on July 11.