Even as the two rival Shiv Sena factions slug it out in the Supreme Court over their respective disqualification pleas against each pther, Sena MP and Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Vinayak Raut on July 21 questioned the “unseemly haste” on part of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in approving rebel MP Rahul Shewale as the new floor leader in the Lower House.
Mr. Raut, the MP from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency, who was appointed by Mr. Thackeray as the Sena’s group leader in the Lok Sabha, further said that the Thackeray camp planned to move the Supreme Court over the “partisan attitude” displayed by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and Mr. Birla in endorsing Mr. Shewale, who has been named by the Eknath Shinde-led rebel camp as the new group leader.
On July 19, the Sena’s Lok Sabha group had split after 12 of the 19 Sena Lok Sabha MPs moved over to the Shinde rebel camp, which named Mumbai South-Central MP Rahul Shewale as new Sena group leader in the Lok Sabha in lieu of Mr. Raut.
