Mumbai: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday said the Supreme Court verdict had rendered all criticism against his government irrelevant, while his deputy Devendra Fadnavis took a dig at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, saying he should not talk about morality.
The two were addressing a joint conference in Mumbai following the judgment.
“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,” Shinde said.
“Thackeray said he did not face the floor test on moral grounds. I want to know where was his morality when he contested the 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.”
Shinde said the former chief minister knew he was in the minority. “Now he is saying his whip will be applicable in the party, but does he have enough MLAs?”
Shinde and Fadnavis completely ignored the SC’s strictures regarding the governor’s conduct, and chose to concentrate on the fact that there was nothing in the verdict that would destabilise the government.
Devendra Fadnavis on SC verdict
Fadnavis termed the verdict as a “victory of democracy”, welcoming everybody at the “press conference by the government whose constitutionality has been ascertained by the Supreme Court”.
He pointed out to that the Supreme Court had ruled that previous conditions cannot be restored due to Thackeray’s resignation and had allowed the Election Commission to take its own decisions.
The SC had validated his decision to go with the BJP as the move was in accordance with the people’s verdict, Shinde said.
Replying to Thackeray’s claim that according to the SC verdict the whip of his party would be valid, Shinde asked, “How many people are left with you to follow the whip?”
Elaborating on his interpretation of the SC verdict, Fadnavis said that the right to decide on who constitute the political party as per the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution now rests with the speaker of the House. “Hence the government is now completely constitutional and legitimate,” he said.
Fadnavis pointed out that the SC has validated the governor’s decision to call Shinde to form the government.
