"BJP, RSS Fascists, Don't Care About Supreme Court Verdict": Ashok Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday lashed out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over the Supreme Court verdict on Maharashtra political crisis and said that they are not concerned about it.

Talking to the media, Mr Gehlot said, "BJP and RSS are fascists, they don't care what the Supreme Court verdict is."

This comes after, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that it could not disqualify the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government and rejected the submission to reinstate Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister because the latter had chosen to resign instead of facing a test of strength in the assembly.

Hitting out at BJP, Mr Gehlot alleged that the party toppled the government in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

"They (BJP) toppled the government in MP, Maharashtra and Karnataka, our (Rajasthan) government survived otherwise, the same situation would have happened to us. People should save themselves from these people," he said.

After the verdict of SC, Uddhav Thackeray said that people who had left his party had no right to ask him questions, and if Eknath Shinde has any morality he should submit his resignation.

Further, the top court referred its 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case to a larger bench.

The court was delivering its judgment in the case of the defection of 16 MLAs in June 2022 from the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. The Thackeray faction had sought disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law of the country.

The Thackeray faction had sought disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law of the country.

The court said that the Speaker must decide on disqualification petitions within a reasonable time.

It added that there were no communications relied on by the Governor indicating that the dissatisfied MLAs wanted to withdraw support to the government. The Governor erred in relying on the resolution of a faction of MLAs of Shiv Sena to conclude that Uddhav Thackeray had lost the support of the majority of MLAs.

It stated that the status quo cannot be restored as Uddhav Thackeray did not face the Floor Test and tendered his resignation. Hence, the Governor was justified in administering the oath to Eknath Shinde with the support of the largest party BJP.

The Supreme Court said that a Floor Test cannot be used as a medium to settle inter and intra-party disputes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)