As Sena splits in LS, Uddhav camp questions Speaker Om Birla’s ‘haste’ in approving MP Rahul Shewale’s name as new floor leader

‘Will move the Supreme Court over partisan attitude displayed by the Lok Sabha secretariat,’ says LS MP Vinayak Raut

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Mumbai: As the two rival Shiv Sena factions lock horns in the Supreme Court over their respective disqualification pleas against each other, Sena MP and Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Vinayak Raut on Thursday questioned the “unseemly haste” on the part of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in approving rebel MP Rahul Shewale as the new floor leader in the Lower House.

Vinayak Raut, the MP from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency who was appointed by Uddhav Thackeray as the Sena’s group leader in the Lok Sabha, further said that the Thackeray camp planned to move the Supreme Court over the ‘partisan attitude’ displayed by the Lok Sabha secretariat and Speaker Om Birla in endorsing Rahul Shewale, who was named by the Eknath Shinde-led rebel camp as the new group leader.

On July 19, the Sena’s Lok Sabha group had split after 12 of the 19 Sena Lok Sabha MPs switched over to the rebel Shinde camp, which named Mumbai South-Central MP Rahul Shewale as new Sena group leader in the Lok Sabha replacing Vinayak Raut.

Speaking to newspersons in New Delhi, Vinayak Raut remarked, “We cannot understand the attitude of the Lok Sabha secretariat and the Speaker. We have been denied natural justice on the basis that group leaders are nominated by the party head, who happens to be Uddhav Thackeray in this case…group leaders are not decided on the basis of who has more numbers [referring to the rebel Shinde camp]. We will move the Supreme Court to question why due process was not followed by the Lok Sabha secretariat.”

He argued that the Speaker had chosen to ignore two letters in the past few days submitted by the Thackeray camp. Vinayak Raut said that on the evening of July 18, they had visited Speaker Om Birla’s office with a plea that he (Vinayak Raut) was the officially appointed leader of the Sena’s parliamentary party and urged the Speaker not to entertain any representation from the breakaway Shinde faction.

Vinayak Raut further added, “We had also submitted a letter in this regard on July 19 and had urged the Speaker to give us time to state our case in the event he did accept any representation from the rival faction…Earlier, on July 6, we had submitted another letter to the Speaker and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister stating that MP Rajan Vichare would henceforth be the party’s chief whip instead of Bhavana Gawali. However, it appears that the Speaker paid no heed to this as well.”

He said it was surprising that while the Shinde camp submitted their letter naming Rahul Shewale – the MP from Mumbai South-Central constituency and reinstating Bhavana Gawali (MP from Yavatmal-Washim) as chief whip on July 19, their names were promptly approved by the Speaker who even issued a backdated notification that the changes would take effect from July 18.

Raut further disclosed, “Yesterday (July 20), we read Rahul Shewale’s name as the new Shiv Sena floor leader on the Lok Sabha portal. It is unfortunate that the Lok Sabha secretariat did not take cognizance of our representations but hastily approved that of the Shinde camp… We don’t think this is the right decision and smacks of a partisan attitude.” He added that the Uddhav camp was also planning to question the Lok Sabha Speaker in writing regarding the issue.

Meanwhile, in a bid to win over the remaining MPs in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday visited ailing MP and senior Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar at the latter’s residence in Goregaon East.

However, Vinayak Raut claimed that despite the defections of the majority of Sena MLAs and MPs to the rebel camp, the rank-and-file of the party stood firmly behind Uddhav Thackeray and not the rebel leaders.