Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar has said he will not resign on moral grounds following the Supreme Court verdict on last year’s political crisis in Maharashtra, in a swipe at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance will examine what it can do about the disqualification of 16 MLAs during the assembly session in July, he added.
Pawar criticized Congress leader Nana Patole for resigning as Speaker without consulting then-Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. If a new Speaker had been elected immediately, the 16 MLAs belonging to the Shinde camp would have been disqualified, he claimed.
The constituents of the MVA alliance had earlier demanded that the Shinde government should resign on moral grounds following the Supreme Court verdict. Uddhav Thackeray faction leader Sanjay Raut had also called the Shinde government in Maharashtra “illegal and formed against the Constitution.” However, Chief Minister Shinde on Thursday said that former Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had acted as per the situation at the time.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the Supreme Court verdict as a “victory of democracy and the democratic process.” The Supreme Court held that former Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was “not justified” to call for a floor test based on the request of the Eknath Shinde faction since he did not have enough objective material before him to conclude that Mr. Thackeray had lost the confidence of the House.
The five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said it could not disqualify the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government and reinstate Mr. Thackeray as Chief Minister because the latter had chosen to resign instead of facing a test of strength in the Assembly.
