Sena Thackeray faction begins final arguments

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification case entered the last lap on Monday with the final arguments getting under way. The final arguments of the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions will be heard till Tuesday. On the first day, the Thackeray faction claimed there was no challenge to Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership before July 2022, when Eknath Shinde took over as CM. It claimed there was no parallel leadership structure in the Shiv Sena and the Shinde faction was only citing assembly majority. It argued that the Shinde faction could not challenge the internal polls in the Shiv Sena now, saying that if Shinde “enjoyed the fruits of the party, then he can not turn around and say party elections were a sham”.Lawyers for the faction said that internal elections where Thackeray was appointed party president in 2018 could not be challenged at this stage. “No challenge was made by legislators till they went to Surat in July 2022. It was after this that Eknath Shinde was sworn in as CM. They had fought the 2019 elections under the same leadership. In this case it’s being said that Uddhav Thackeray allied with Congress, therefore his leadership wasn’t accepted. This argument can't be raised, because the fact that the coalition (with the BJP) was broken is something that can’t be discussed now. But switching alliances is not an argument. Even Nitish Kumar fought as Mahagathbandhan but switched later,” a Thackeray faction functionary said.The argument was led by Thackeray faction lawyer Devdutt Kamat.