Maharashtra crisis | BJP holds core committee meeting; check updates here

Meanwhile, a core committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra unit was held on Monday to discuss the state’s political situation amid the crisis faced by the MVA government due to the revolt in Shiv Sena. The BJP has decided that the party will follow the “wait and watch” approach. The meeting was held at the residence of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the presence of Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil and other BJP leaders.

Here are all the important updates to the story you should know now:

1. The battle between the groups that reached the SC on Monday which granted interim relief to Shinde and other MLAs to file their reply to disqualification notices issued to them by the Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly by July 12, 5.30 pm. Earlier, the Deputy Speaker had granted them time to file a reply by Monday, 5.30 pm. A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, in its order, said, “As an interim measure, the time granted by the Deputy Speaker, to the petitioners or other similarly placed MLAs to submit their submissions today by 5.30 pm, stands extended till July 12. The petitioners or other MLAs are at liberty to submit their reply without prejudice to their rights in the writ petition.”

2. Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde on Monday termed the relief by the Supreme Court to him and other dissident Sena lawmakers as the victory of Bal Thackeray’s Hindutva and the ideals of his mentor Anand Dighe. The top court also refused to pass any interim order on the plea of the Maharashtra government that there should not be any floor test in the Assembly and said they can always approach it in case of illegality. “This is the victory of Hindu hridaysamrat Balasaheb’s Hindutva and the ideals of (the late) Dharamaveer Anand Dighe,” tweeted Shinde, who is camping with the dissident MLAs in Guwahati. Shinde moved the Supreme Court on Sunday against the disqualification notice issued by the deputy speaker to him and 15 other rebel legislators, calling the action “illegal and unconstitutional” and seeking a stay on it. The petition had sought directions to the deputy speaker to not take any action in the Disqualification Petition under Rule 6 of MLA Defection Rules pending before the Speaker of Maharashtra State Legislative Assembly and not take any action on the same until the resolution for removal of deputy speaker is decided. The Maharashtra legislature secretariat on Saturday issued “summons” to 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde, seeking written replies by the evening of June 27 to the complaints seeking their disqualification.

3. Aaditya Thackeray claimed that 15 to 20 Shiv Sena MLAs who have joined the rebel camp are in touch with him and have urged the party to bring them back to Mumbai from Guwahati, where they are lodged in a hotel along with Cabinet minister Eknath Shinde whose rebellion has pushed the MVA government into a major crisis. “The dirt has gone away. Now we can do something good,” Thackeray said, referring to the rebel MLAs. “Their situation is like a prisoner, first in Surat (where the rebels landed after leaving Mumbai last week) and then in Guwahati,” he said. Shinde has claimed the support of more than three dozen Sena MLAs out of the total 55. Slamming the Sena strongman from Thane without taking his name, Thackeray said some leaders were “blindly trusted” and the sad part is such people were promoted in the organization continuously. 

4. It is learnt from sources that the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, who are currently camping in Assam are likely to stay for more days at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati and are unlikely to return before July 5.

5. A core committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Maharashtra unit was held on Monday to discuss the state’s political situation amid the crisis faced by the MVA government due to the revolt in Shiv Sena. The BJP has decided that the party will follow the “wait and watch” approach.

6. As Maharashtra remains embroiled in political crisis, with several rebel MLAs of ruling Shiv Sena camping in Assam, in what seems to be a bid to topple the MVA coalition government in the state, senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday claimed that the TMC-led dispensation in Bengal, too, will meet a similar fate, and much before its tenure ends. Adhikari also said that the non-BJP states of Jharkhand and Rajasthan were next in line after Maharashtra, and Bengal’s turn would come after that.

7. Sanjay Raut said on Monday that he did not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments, a day after he called rebel party MLAs in Guwahati as “living corpses”. “I tweeted a video of speech of Gulabrao Patil where he is talking about those who change their fathers. My tweet is for people sitting in Guwahati. Patil said in his speech “People eat, drink and enjoy with the party and then change their father, we aren’t like them,” Raut was quoted by ANI. “I will repeat it, “those who stay in a party for 40 years and then run away, their souls are dead, they do not have anything left in them”, these are the lines said by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s sentiment, I just said the truth,” he added. 

8. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray reshuffles the departments of ministers so that the issues of public interest are not neglected or ignored, news agency ANI had reported citing CMO.

9. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Sanjay Raut for questioning on 28 June in Patra Chawl land scam case. After the summons, he said that even if beheaded won’t take Guwahati route.

10. Dubbing Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut a “blue-eyed boy” of the NCP, rebel Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar on Monday said when the Shiv Sena-BJP government formation in Maharashtra was a mere formality in 2019, he became “active” with the blessings of a “strong NCP leader” and that he is set off to finish the saffron party. In an open letter, Kesarkar said those who get elected because of legislators are now abusing them every day, an apparent reference to Sanjay Raut. “We are called pigs, much disturbing abuse is coming our way, so much so that our dead bodies are now awaited,” he said. Talking about 2019, when the Shiv Sena and the BJP were expected to form a government in the state for a second term, Kesarkar said, “Sanjay Raut became active with the blessings of a strong NCP leader. The mandate was for the Sena-BJP alliance. We overlooked Maharashtra and people’s mandate by forming an unnatural alliance with the BJP.” 

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