MVA allies to explain SC verdict to people on Maharashtra political crisis

Terming the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra as "unconstitutional", the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies on Saturday alleged that those ruling the state were spreading misinformation among people over the Supreme Court's recent verdict on the political crisis that led to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government last year.

Addressing a joint press conference in Thane, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit president Anand Paranjape and his Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress counterparts Pradeep Shinde and Vikrant Chavan, respectively, said the three allies would reach out to people and explain to them the meaning of the top court's ruling. In its verdict given on May 11 on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the MVA government's fall, the Supreme Court said it cannot restore the then MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing a floor test in June last year and that Eknath Shinde will continue as the chief minister of Maharashtra.

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The court also pulled up former Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and said he did not have reasons based on objective material before him to arrive at the conclusion that then chief minister Thackeray had lost the confidence of the House.

It, however, said that since Thackeray had resigned without facing the floor test, the governor was justified in inviting Shinde to form government at the behest of the BJP which was the largest political party in the House.

Paranjpe said, "The government helmed by Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has misinterpreted the judgment and it is confusing people of the state. But we want to put the things in right perspective by explaining the apex court verdict."

Therefore, the MVA has decided to reach out to people and explain to them what the verdict exactly means with reference to the role of the governor and other things. We will oaganise sessions on this. To begin with, a session will be held in Thane for the office-bearers of the three parties on the coming Tuesday, he said. Later on, such explanatory sessions will be held in each district and taluka, Shinde and Chavan said. Senior local leaders of the MVA partners will address the session at Thane and explain the judgment point by point, they said.