Pune advocate Asim Sarode cites SC ruling in Telangana MLAs' defection case, predicts ‘major political upheaval' in Maharashtra

Indian Express

5 days ago

Pune advocate Asim Sarode, who is known for his proximity to the Shiv Sena (UBT), claimed on Tuesday that Maharashtra would witness 'a major political upheaval' in September, when the Supreme Court is expected to rule in the Shiv Sena name and symbol case as well as on the party MLAs' disqualification matter.
'There are indications, including the one relating to the Supreme Court ruling in the Telangana MLAs' case, that Maharashtra is all set to witness a major political upheaval in September. The political scenario is going to turn upside down,' Sarode said.
The Supreme Court has asked the Speaker of the Telangana Assembly to decide petitions seeking the disqualification of 10 Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLAs who had defected to the ruling Congress expeditiously and not later than three months.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut concurred. 'There will be a major political upheaval, not just in Maharashtra, but in the country as well,' he said.
'The apex court has urged Parliament to reconsider whether the Assembly Speaker should be allowed to decide on the disqualification petition. The Supreme Court also asked Parliament to reconsider whether the authority given to Speaker to decide disqualification petitions was conducive to curbing political defections,' he said.
Sarode also pointed out that the Supreme Court had pointed out that the Speaker delayed issuing notice on the petitions seeking disqualification for almost seven months.
'This is exactly what happened in the case of Maharashtra. Because of the delayed decision in the case, the defected MLAs reaped the benefits so much so that the term of the Assembly got over and the MLAs escaped unscathed,' he added.
In 2022, a faction led by Eknath Shinde had split from the Shiv Sena after revolting against Thackeray. The rebellion had led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, paving the way for the BJP to form the government with the Shinde Sena.
'The apex court has said either we should take the Tenth Schedule [of the Constitution] seriously or it should be reconsidered if we do not want to follow it. The Supreme Court will have to keep the same view in the Maharashtra case as well. If it does, then [Eknath] Shinde's claim will fail,' he said.
Claiming that Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar was not 'eligible to decide the matter', Sarode pointed out that Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai had said that he would not take up any government post after retirement. 'This is significant as judges always look for some posting from the government after retirement. This means the CJI will not leave before delivering an unprecedented verdict,' he said.
Sarode also alleged that there was a visible panic in the Shinde camp. 'The number of trips he is making to Delhi reveals a lot,' he said, adding that the BJP does not seem to be in favour of Shinde now.
Sarode said the final hearing was likely after September 23. 'But if the Supreme Court decides to refer the matter to a larger bench, there will be a delay again,' he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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