Lok Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday issued an official circular notifying the change in leadership of the Shiv Sena Party in Lok Sabha. Now, the leader of Shiv Sena in the House will be Rahul Shewale, said sources.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accepted the demand of the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena to change the party leader in the House. Bhavana Gawali has been retained as the Chief Whip, said sources.
There are two instances on the basis of which the Speaker made the decision.
In a matter in 1988, the attorney general told Supreme Court that the leader of the party will be the one with the maximum voice votes. Second, in June 2021 Chirag Paswan vs Pashupati Paras incident. To date, Pashupati is the leader of the party because the numbers are stacked in his favour! Even High Court had upheld the Speaker’s decision, sources said.
This comes after 12 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena met the Lok Sabha Speaker and requested him to change the leader of the party in the Lower House of Parliament.
Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shawale said that a letter to change the party leader in the lower house of the parliament has been sent to the Lok Sabha speaker as he will be giving recognition to the party, once legal actions are taken.
Shawale told ANI, “We are the internet process of the party and there is no split in the party. Shiv Sena is Shiv Sena. The party was angry with our leader Vinayak Raut. He was not supportive at all and that’s why we have demanded to replace him.”
The 12 of Shiv Sena’s 19 MPs have joined the Eknath-Shinde faction “in the interest of the people of Maharashtra,” he added.
The MPs are- Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Rahul Shewale, Bhavana Gawali, Hemant Godse, Rajendra Gavit, Sadashiv Lokhande, Hemant Patil, Sanjay Mandlik, Dhairyasheel Mane, Shrirang Barne, Krupal Tumane and Prataprao Jadhav.
The political developments come shortly after a revolt by majority Sena MLAs against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership overthrowing the MVA government in Maharashtra and Eknath Shinde assuming the CM’s office.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, with help from BJP, won the floor test in the state assembly.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said that the government formed with BJP is getting full support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (ANI)
