Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena objected to the appointment of Uddhav Thackeray as the party president of Shiv Sena in 2018, during the hearing of disqualification pleas of Sena MLAs by Speaker Rahul Narwekar Thursday. During the hearing, Shinde Sena alleged that no party executive meeting was held to appoint Uddhav as the party chief. During the hearing, both the sides argued for over three hours. The Shinde-led Sena filed an application before the Speaker seeking a time of 14 days to examine fresh evidences in the case and submit the evidences. Sena UBT lawyer, however, opposed the application stating that there is no need to lead and examine the evidences in the case which is also observed by the Supreme Court during the last hearing. The next hearing will now take place on November 2 when the arguments will continue. “Through an application from Shinde-led Sena we sought to lead the evidence during the hearing. However, Thackeray faction has claimed that they do not wish to lead any evidence so we requested the tribunal to close their evidence since they themselves have said that they do not wish to lead evidence. The arguments have not been completed yet. It will continue November 2,” a lawyer representjng Shinde-led Sena said. Shinde faction lawyer Anil Sakhare told the mediapersons outside the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai that Narwekar will pass an order on whether evidence can be led or not next week. During the hearing the Shinde Sena argued that even as the Sena UBT is showing that Uddhav was appointed as party president during the executive meeting in June 21, 2018, no such meeting was held and hence they raised an objection on Uddhav's appointment. “The Shinde faction also raised several questions about which faction is the main political party and who can be issued whip at such situation and how can whip be appointed needs to ascertained and hence there should be opportunity to submit and lead the evidence so that there will be clarity on these issues,” an official from the state legislature said. The Sena UBT, however, took an objection on the plea and said that there is no need to examine evidences and cited an SC observation claiming that the apex court has drawn a laxman rekha (a set procedure) to hold the hearing and allowing to lead evidence would be in violation of SC observation. “There is no need of examining the evidences. The SC order has drawn an laxman rekha. It is a summary inquiry. you have to take decision based on the documents presented before which is matters of facts. The Thackeray led faction said that the tribunal should just see the timeline and what happened during the power transition last year. There is no need of looking at what the is the organisational structure of the party,” a Sena UBT member said. Sena UBT leader and MLC Anil Parab they have already submitted a some documents which are matter of facts about the whole issue and transition of power which “cannot be and have not been denied by anyone”. “Hence, we requested Speaker to give the decision based on that since it's a summary inquiry. But the Shinde-led faction wants to submit and lead some evidence. The arguments took place from both the sides if leading evidence is important or not. The next hearing will take place on next week,” he said after the hearing. Last week, Narwekar clubbed the 34 petitions seeking the disqualification of 54 Shiv Sena MLAs of two factions — one led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde — into six groups based on their similarities in nature and cause of action.
