‘Verdict Will Come in Our Favour’: Shiv Sena UBT Advocate Dharam Mishra on MLA Disqualification Case

Ahead of the verdict on Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification petitions on Wednesday, News18 spoke with Shiv Sena UBT advocate Dharam Mishra who said the party is expecting the verdict in its favour since the case has cleared all the hurdles from the Bombay High Court to the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and later at the tribunal in the last two years.

He says in case the Shiv Sena UBT loses out on the case, the team will knock on the door of the Supreme Court.

“In the last order of the Supreme Court, it had recognised Sunil Prabhu’s whip and denied their claim of Bharat Gogawale being the whip of Shiv Sena…We had raised the issue of time consumption in this case because if the Lok Sabha elections happen April, then we have very little time in hand to prepare for it. If we get the order in our favour, we will start our poll preparations immediately by working on the agenda of the party but if order doesn’t come in our favour we will be approaching the Supreme Court since it won’t consume so much time as it has already instructed the Speaker to give the verdict,” Mishra told News18.

He further said, “We still have an option of judicial review but it will be time consuming. I believe that the tribunal won’t dismiss our petitions as the SC has passed the last order on this case, so how could the tribunal dismiss it.”

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar is expected to announce the verdict today after 4 pm.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray on January 9 said his party had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court objecting to the recent visit by Narwekar to chief minister Eknath Shinde before the verdict. He told media that Narwekar was procrastinating the order and accused him of “delaying tactics”.

The SC had last May ruled that Shinde would continue to be the Maharashtra Chief Minister as it could not reinstate the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government headed by Thackeray as the latter chose to resign without facing a floor test. The apex court, however, questioned then Governor BS Koshyari’s action of calling for a floor test in order to solve an intra-party dispute.