Maharashtra Politics: A day after the Supreme Court's ruling on last year's political crisis in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said there is no need of demanding resignation from the incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on moral grounds, as he will not step down. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Pawar said that there is a huge difference between former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the current people. "We know he (Eknath Shinde) will not resign even in his dreams," Pawar claimed.
Ajit Pawar on Speaker's resignation
Notably, the NCP leader's statement came after former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's demand for Shinde to resign on moral grounds following the apex court's verdict. Speaking further on the then-political crisis, Pawar said that the Speaker of the Assembly (Nana Patole) should not have resigned the way he did in 2021. "Our Speaker had resigned then without asking our CM Uddhav Thackeray, that should not have happened. Even if he resigned, we could have elected a new Speaker immediately. If we had our Speaker, then those 16 MLAs would have been disqualified then," the NCP leader remarked.
What SC said in its verdict?
The Supreme Court on Thursday held that former Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was "not justified" to call for a floor test based on the request of Eknath Shinde faction since he did not have enough objective material before him to conclude that the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had lost the confidence of the House.
A five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha said it could not disqualify the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government and reinstate Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minster because the latter had chosen to resign instead of facing a test of strength in the Assembly. The court said the political imbroglio in Maharashtra arose as a result of party differences within the Shiv Sena.
ALSO READ: Sena vs Sena: Win for none; SC says Uddhav resigned on his own, can't be reinstated
Former Maha Governor reacts to SC verdict
Meanwhile, reacting to the Supreme Court's verdict that the floor test was "not justified", the then-Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari defended his move saying his decision was compelled as Thackeray had resigned. "When someone's resignation came to me, what would I say, don't resign," he told reporters.
Asked about the apex court's judgement, saying that the Governor have no power to enter the political arena, he immediately said that it is not his job to see whether the Supreme Court's decision is right or wrong. "Now that the Supreme Court has said. So it is the job of you people, to see whether the top court's judgement is right or wrong. It is a job of an analyst, to it and not mine," he added.
CM Shinde backs former State Governor
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also backed the former State Governor. "I won't talk about what Supreme Court said about the then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, but I would say that he acted as per the situation at the time," Shinde said in a press briefing in Mumbai.
(With inputs from agencies)
