The 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, who are led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, have submitted individual responses to the Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar's disqualification notice that total thousands of pages.
Each MLA has prepared a reply of between 6,000 and 6,500 pages, according to Sanjay Shirsat, a Sena MLA and the party's spokesperson. It is not a joint statement. Every MLA has filed a separate reply of 6,000 to 6,500 pages, he told PTI.
Shirsat was one of the 16 MLAs against whom disqualification notices were initially issued after they rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, then chief minister and head of the undivided Sena, in June 2022. The Thackeray group had approached the Speaker with a petition seeking to disqualify them. The replies were sent in a tempo, Shirsat added.
When contacted, Sena MLAs Sada Sarvankar and Balaji Kinikar said they were not aware about the length of the replies. The legal team of the party is looking into it, said Kinikar, who is the party treasurer.
Yogesh Kadam, another party MLA who was not among the 16 MLAs who were initially issued disqualification notices, said the document runs into 6,000 to 6,500 pages. The replies they have sent are different from those furnished by the 16 MLAs, he added. State minister and Shinde faction leader Deepak Kesarkar told reporters that a long reply does not mean we are wasting the time of the speaker and assembly. If the annexure to the reply is big, the number of pages goes up, he said, denying that sending lengthy replies was a deliberate attempt to waste time.
Speaker Rahul Narwekar, meanwhile, told reporters that the hearing on the disqualification petition will start soon. I can assure you that there will not be any delay in the process. The other processes are being completed. We will follow all the rules and make appropriate decision, he added. Supreme Court on July 14 had issued a notice to the office of the speaker on a plea by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking a direction to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions.