Formed govt within legal, constitutional framework, SC now has put its stamp on it: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde

Mumbai: Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, stated on Thursday that he staked a claim to form the government in June within the legal and constitutional framework, and that claim has now received the approval of the Supreme Court.

The CM and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis praised the ruling in a statement to the media following the top court's verdict on the political crisis that resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA administration following a Shinde faction uprising.

Shinde said, “The government we formed was within the legal and constitutional framework. The Supreme Court has now put its stamp on it. Earlier, people used to derive pseudo-pleasure by calling our government an unconstitutional alliance.”.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders have often called the Shinde government "unconstitutional".

Now, all those critics and their criticism have become irrelevant, Shinde said.

Fadnavis also took a dig at Thackeray saying the latter should not talk about morality. “Thackeray said that he did not face the floor test on moral grounds. I want to know where was his morality when he contested state assembly elections in 2019 with us but joined hands with the Opposition to form the government,” Fadnavis said.

“Thackeray gave the resignation out of shame,” he claimed.

Shinde said, “The former chief minister knew he was in the minority. Now he is talking about his whip will be applicable in the party, but does he have enough MLAs?”.

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that it cannot restore the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing the floor test in June last year.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the three-party MVA government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Shinde faction, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud held that the then Speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was “illegal”.

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

With PTI inputs