MP says Shinde made chief leader after amending party constitution

Nagpur: The cross-examination of Shiv Sena MLAs from the Eknath Shinde group in the Sena MLAs’ disqualification case continued on Saturday, with party MP Rahul Shewale saying that Shinde’s appointment as chief leader of the party was made after an amendment to the Shiv Sena constitution.Shinde was appointed the Shiv Sena’s chief leader on July 18, 2022. Lawyers of the Uddhav Thackeray faction began cross-examination of Shewale on Saturday and questioned him on Shinde’s election as the party’s chief leader.Further, during the cross-examination of Shinde faction MLA Yogesh Kadam, the Thackeray faction’s lawyers asked Kadam if Shinde or the BJP had spent money on booking the MLAs’ tickets from Mumbai to Surat and Guwahati in July last year and on their stay. Kadam refused to answer the question, stating it was personal. Shewale said, “Eknath Shinde was appointed as chief leader after the party constitution was amended in the national executive of the party. This was only after amending the constitution. I don’t want to comment further as cross-examination is currently underway, and this may cause some technical problems.” His cross-examination will continue on Tuesday. Uddhav faction MLA Sunil Prabhu accused Shewale of lying and said, “In 1999, the Shiv Sena constitution had no provision for chief leader, and this is the constitution that they are referring to. The truth will win.” The cross-examination of Shinde group MLAs began on Friday. First MLA Dilip Lande was cross-examined by Uddhav faction lawyer Devdutt Kamat. After Lande, Kadam was cross-examined.After Lande, Kadam and Shewale, the statements of Shinde faction MLAs Bharat Gogawale, Deepak Kesarkar and Uday Samant will be recorded in Nagpur. They will then be cross-examined.With the winter session of the state legislature underway in Nagpur, hearings are being conducted in the afternoon and last till late evening.Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar asked lawyers from both the factions to wrap up cross-examination by next Tuesday. “The arguments will begin on December 18 and these will be over by December 22-23,” the Shinde factions’ lawyer Anil Sakhare said. On Friday, Shiv Sena (UBT) lawyers produced an attendance sheet that claimed that on June 21, 2022, at a meeting of the Shiv Sena legislature party held at Varsha, the chief minister’s residence in Mumbai, 23 Shiv Sena MLAs were present and had signed the sheet. A proposal was made to remove Eknath Shinde from the post of Sena group leader and the 23 MLAs had approved of this decision at this meeting, the UBT Sena has said. Shewale refused to comment on this claim.
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