Fresh plea in SC to stop "unholy alliance" from forming govt in Maharashtra
New Delhi, Nov 22: A fresh PIL was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday seeking to restrain the Maharashtra Governor from inviting political parties Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to form the government "against the people's mandate" and to declare such formation as "unconstitutional".
Terming the alliance as "unholy", the plea filed by Maharashtra resident Surendra Indrabahadur Singh said that if a coalition of Shiv Sena with the political parties against which it contested is allowed, it would be against constitutional ethos and will result in dilution of public mandate.
"The present petition seeks to stop the unholy alliance between three political parties which have all fought against each other but is trying to form government by joining hands thereby cheating the electoral mandate," the plea said.
This is the second petition filed against the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance. The first petition in this regard was filed by one Pramod Pandit Joshi seeking declaration of the coalition as "fraud" on the electorate for gaining power.
The fresh PIL said the Governor is under constitutional obligation to consider concept of popular government but the post poll alliance between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress is based on power sharing concept between parties which have been voted out by people.
The plea alleged that the change in the stand of Shiv Sena, which had fought the Assembly polls along with BJP, was "nothing but betrayal of people trust reposed in the NDA".
It said that the Maharashtra electorate cast votes keeping in mind the pre-poll alliance of Shiv Sena and BJP; however the new coalition would be against the constitutional right of voters and vitiate entire electoral system.
"Shiv Sena is trading with NCP and INC to stake claim to form government in Maharashtra. Such act, if done, will amount to playing fraud on the voters who have voted for Shiv Sena believing them that its going for alliance with Bhartiya Janta Party and vice versa. Such Votes which are cast under misrepresentation and fraud, vitiates the vote cast by me and people alike and in fact vitiates the entire democratic electoral system," the plea alleged.
"The voters of BJP and Shiv Sena had casted their vote either to BJP or Shiv Sena on the belief that the Mandate is being made in favour of the Mahayuti. Similarly people voted for either NCP or INC on the belief that it is being made in favour of Maha aghadi... However, due to some differences between Mahayuti partners, they have not claimed to form government which is an insult to mandate given by people. In fact the mandate was being put in trade by formation of the new government in Maharashtra," it further said.
President's rule has been imposed in the state since November 12 after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a report to the Centre, stating that formation of a stable government was impossible in the current situation despite all his efforts.
The BJP and Shiv Sena, which fought the state elections in alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly. But the BJP did not cede the Sena's demand of sharing the chief minister's post, leading to falling apart of the nearly three-decade-old alliance.
The Congress and NCP won 44 and 54 seats respectively, in the last month's polls.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
