Uddhav Thackeray

A five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices M.R. Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha, before reserving the verdict, shot a volley of questions at senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Thackeray group.

A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud told senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the Shinde faction, that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution attaches a disqualification, "the moment you have a rival faction and it absolutely makes no difference whether you are saying, we are in the same party and we represent the same party...".

Both Kejriwal and Thackeray said they were keen on meeting each other personally for a long time and Mann harped on the century-old connections between Maharashtra and Punjab. Kejriwal heaped praises on Thackeray for the good work done during the Covid-19 pandemic in Maharashtra and how they learnt a lot to replicate it in Delhi.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Uddhav Thackeray faction, submitted before a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that the Governor was not empowered in law to recognise rebel MLAs of a political party and legitimise their action, as the Election Commission has power to recognise a political party.

The debate on that short-lived experiment of Bharatiya Janata Party-NCP saw the two-men regime collapse in barely 80 hours, and a couple of days later Uddhav Thackeray was sworn-in as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) CM. "There was an attempt to form the government.. But one advantage of the exercise was it served to end the President's Rule in the state. Everybody witnessed what happened thereafter," said Pawar on that episode.

A five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, that it is the decision of the Speaker of the house whether the rebellion by the Shinde bloc attracted the provisions of the anti-disqualification law.

Thackeray's shocker came at a media conference when he termed the ECI ruling of last Friday as "incorrect" and said his party has challenged it in the Supreme Court Monday. "Such undemocratic decisions cannot be made on the basis of money-power... It's an unconstitutional verdict. We demand that the ECI should be dissolved, an impartial EC should be appointed

"These thieves have stolen the name and symbol of Balasaheb Thackeray's party... It was done on the eve of Maha Shivratri today and Shivaji Jayanti tomorrow. But my 'Sainiks' (soldiers) are with me. We shall not rest till we bury these robbers in the elections," roared Thackeray amidst loud rounds of applause.

"Our lawyers have sought the ECI's clearance to conduct the intra-party elections before the end of Thackeray's term as party chief. If the ECI has any reservations to this, then it should extend his tenure as party President until a final decision is taken," Anil Desai said.

Speaking in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, the Shiv Sena (UBT) President said though Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has adopted an aggressive stance on the issue, the Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde remains silent."Until the apex court takes decision in the matter, the areas of Belagavi (Belgaum), Karwar, Nippani should be declared as a UT. This point must be included in the resolution that is passed in the legislature," said Thackeray.