Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar ruled that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction is the original Shiv Sena political party. In a judgment given today in the Central hall of Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, he accepted that Shiv Sena split on 21st June 2022. Mr Narvekar validated the appointment of Bharat Gogavale, the whip appointed by Shinde, since Sunil Prabhu could not be accepted as an official whip due to a split in the party.
On 21 June 2022 Eknath Shinde along with some MLAs rebelled against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Later he took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra. Both factions then approached the Supreme Court. The Court termed Shinde’s oath as valid due to the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray. SC said the Speaker must rely on the original constitution of the Shiv Sena party to decide on the disqualification petitions filed by the rival faction. Accordingly, the Speaker relied on the 1999 Constitution of the Party.