"Drama": Sharad Pawar's NCP On E Shinde Camp Challenging Speaker Decision

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Monday said the decision of the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena to approach the Bombay High Court against Speaker Rahul Narwekar's decision to not disqualify MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray group was "nothing but a drama".

The Shiv Sena under Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on January 12 moved the HC challenging the "legality, propriety and correctness" of the January 10 order passed by Narwekar dismissing the disqualification petitions submitted against MLAs owning allegiance to Shiv Sena (UBT).

In his petition, Bharat Gogavale, the chief whip of the ruling Shiv Sena, urged the HC to declare the Speaker's order as "bad in law", quash it, and disqualify all the 14 MLAs of the Shiv Sena (UBT).

"They (Shinde faction) know this judgment by the Speaker is against the ruling of the Supreme Court and it will not stand there," NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said.

The Shinde group going to court endorses the doubts and questions raised by the opposition on the judgment and decision of the Speaker, Mr Crasto added.

Mr Narwekar, while pronouncing his order on January 10 in the Shiv Sena disqualification case, had rejected the Thackeray faction's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde.

The Speaker also chose not to disqualify the 14 MLAs of the Thackeray group as demanded by the Shinde faction.

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