A day before the crucial trust vote of the Eknath Shinde government, Maharashtra Speaker Narvekar on Sunday night removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the legislative party leader.
The letter also recognized the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
The Shiv Sena said the decision will be challenged in court.
The letter addressed to Shiv Sena rebel MLA and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan administration had received a letter from his faction on June 22 objecting to Shinde's removal as the group leader of the Shiv Sena Legislative Party by the party chief Uddhav Thackeray.
The letter issued by Narvekar stated that after discussing the legalities of the matter, the Speaker rejects the appointment of Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the group leader of the legislative unit of the party.
This comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction comprising 16 MLAs who will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for today's trust vote. If these 16 MLAs refuse to follow the whip, they may face disqualification.
Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and MP Arvind Sawant called it ‘unconstitutional’ adding that the party will challenge the decision in court.
Sawant alleged that the decision amounts to trampling the Constitution and democratic norms. "The BJP is marching towards autocracy," Mr Sawant added.
Rebel Shiv Sena group leader Ajay Chaudhary alleged that the new Speaker did not even conduct any hearing over the objections of both sides.
The Shiv Sena-BJP government, which has only been in office for four days, will be put to floor test today during a special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly.
Ahead of the floor test, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with his faction of Shiv Sena MLAs held a meeting with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, BJP MLAs, and other party leaders at a hotel in Mumbai.
"The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government is set to face a majority test on Monday, the second day of the special session of the legislature. What exactly will be the strategy of the government was discussed in the meeting held in the presence of all the MLAs today," sources had said.
Meanwhile, the new coalition elected BJP candidate Rahul Narwekar was elected as the Speaker of the House with 164 votes in support and 107 against him on the first day of the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly that began on 3 July. He defeated Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi.
Eknath Shinde, who has been claiming the support of 40 rebel Shiv Sena legislators said that he expects the government to be successful in the floor test to be held tomorrow like the Speaker's election held today, sources added.
