Eknath Shinde became the leader of Shiv Sena Legislature Party.

Mumbai :

A day before the crucial trust vote of the Eknath Shinde-BJP government, the Uddhav Thackeray faction has suffered a major setback.

The newly-appointed Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Sunday night removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary from the post of Legislature Party. 

A letter issued by president Rahul Narvekar's office reinstated Shinde as the leader of the Sena's legislature party and appointed Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena, replacing Sunil Prabhu, a member of the Thackeray faction.

Shiv Sena said that the decision will be challenged in the court.

The letter, addressed to rebel Shiv Sena MLA and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, said the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan administration had received a letter from his faction on June 22, asking party chief Uddhav Thackeray to remove Shinde as the group leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party. objection was raised.

After discussing the legality of the matter, the Speaker rejected the appointment of Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Choudhary as the group leader of the party's legislature wing, said the letter issued by the office of President Rahul Narvekar on Sunday night.

The letter, a copy of which is with PTI, reinstates Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena's house and also recognizes the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as the party's chief whip in place of Sunil Prabhu.

The development comes in a major blow to the Thackeray faction, which comprises 16 MLAs, who will be bound by a whip to be issued by Gogawale for Monday's trust vote.

If these 16 MLAs refuse to obey the whip, they may face disqualification.

Reacting to the developments, Shiv Sena's chief spokesperson and MP Arvind Sawant said that they will challenge the "unconstitutional" decision in court.

Former General Secretary of Lok Sabha P D T Acharya has directed that the party leader (pramukh) has the right to appoint the group leader of that party's legislative unit.

Sawant said that how can you say that (Eknath Shinde) is the leader of the party? 

He alleged that the decision amounted to trampling on the Constitution and democratic norms.

Sawant said, "BJP is moving towards autocracy."

Deposed Shiv Sena leader Ajay Chaudhary said that the new president did not even listen to the objections of both the parties.

He asked "When my name was proposed for the post of leader of the Shiv Sena group, it was signed by Shiv Sena MLAs Dada Bhuse and Sanjay Rathod. Both of them later joined the Shinde camp. The speaker ignored these facts." How can I? When my appointment was recognized. President Narhari Jirwal, how can the newly appointed President Rahul Narvekar interfere?"

Earlier in the day, BJP's Rahul Narvekar was elected Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the first day of the special session.

Narvekar, who secured 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes.

The post of the president was vacant since February last year after Congress's Nana Patole resigned.

Looking at the votes polled in the speaker's election, it seems that the numbers for the floor test are in favor of the Shinde-BJP government.

One post is vacant in the 288-member assembly due to the death of Shiv Sena's Ramesh Latke.

Of the 287 MLAs, 271 voted, while three MLAs - two from SP and one from AIMIM - abstained from voting.

Of the 12 absent MLAs, Laxman Jagtap and Mukta Tilak (both BJP) are suffering from serious ailments.

Two NCP MLAs Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in jail in different cases of money laundering.

Four other NCP MLAs did not attend.


Two Congress MLAs Praneeti Shinde and Jitesh Antapurkar also did not attend the session.

Not even one AIMIM attended the session.




(This news has not been edited by NDTV team. It has been published directly from Syndicate feed.)