Mumbai: In 1999, the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena amended the party’s constitution in accordance with the directions of the Election Commission (EC) to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of the party chief and make it more “democratic.”
But 19 years later, the Shiv Sena, then led by Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav, amended the constitution again — placing power in the hands of the party chief once more, the EC said Friday. And according to the EC order, the party didn’t place the amended constitution on the commission’s record. ThePrint has seen a copy of the order.
The 2018 amendment and the supposed procedural fault has now come to haunt the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, with the EC Friday slamming the party’s constitution as “undemocratic” and allotting the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and its ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The “undemocratic” constitution is why the EC did not consider the test of organisational strength while adjudicating the dispute between the Shinde and Thackeray factions over who is the real Shiv Sena, and instead decided to solely rely on legislative strength.
“When a party constitution turns its functionaries into puppets controlled by a leader with unabridged powers, the path only leads to degradation in democratic governance of the country,” the EC said.
It added that deciding a dispute within a political party on the basis of a constitution that “creates a power centre rather than democratising the organisation” would mean that the EC was “blinking its eye” to a foundational principle of the Constitution of India.
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‘Amended constitution not placed on record’
According to the EC, the Shiv Sena was registered in 1989. Between 1997 and 1998, the EC persuaded the party to amend its constitution to ensure that Bal Thackeray would not remain its chief “for life or till he so desires.” The commission also asked the Sena to do away with provisions that allowed the party chief to nominate office bearers by himself. The party amended its constitution in 1999, and the EC took this version on record.
But in its order, the EC said that during the dispute, both the Shinde and Thackeray factions were referring to a further amended version of the constitution dated 2018. According to the EC, this version isn’t on its record — even though one of the conditions of the registration of any political party is to communicate to the EC any change in the party’s name, head office, office bearers or any other material matters without delay.
While Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai had informed the EC about the election of new office bearers in 2018, he did not specifically state that the constitution under which these office bearers were elected has also changed, the EC said.
“The amendment in the constitution of the party is undoubtedly the most critical change. Needless to add that such material change, as the amendment of the constitution itself, needs to follow a rigour such as the submission of the authenticated copy of the resolution, attendance etc. besides other documents. There is no available evidence of such supporting documents having been supplied earlier or even during the proceedings,” the EC said.
Desai did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages.
A senior functionary, who has been with the Shiv Sena since the 1980s and is now part of the Uddhav faction, told ThePrint that the party has always worked first under Bal Thackeray’s directions and later those of Uddhav Thackeray. The EC has not really shown willingness to understand this, he said.
“I don’t know what the 1999 constitution said, but nothing used to happen without Balasaheb’s directions even back then, and nobody dared tto challenge him,” he said. After Bal Thackeray’s death in 2012, the functionary added, Uddhav Thackeray was not comfortable elevating himself as “Shiv Sena paksha pramukh” saying that was rightfully his father’s place.
“Uddhavsaheb was karyadhyaksh (executive president), but in 2018, we created the post of party president once again and Uddhavsaheb took up the post. It was done with the full consensus of the administration. Elections in the Shiv Sena are always unopposed. This is how the character of the party has been, but the EC wanted to give a particular order so they found a way of doing so.”
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‘2018 amendment made party chief power centre’
According to the 2018 constitution, the Shiv Sena chief will be the highest authority in the party who can withhold, remove or annul appointments to any post and whose decisions on all party matters will be final.
“…the 2018 amendment of the party constitution has made the position of ‘Shiv Sena Paksha Pramukh’ (Shiv Sena party chief) a power centre…,” the EC said in its order Friday.
“…there cannot be any other inference but that the party president has been vested with authoritarian powers. This consequently compromises on the norms of intra-party democracy and perpetuates fiefdom of an individual over the rights of innumerable party workers,” the EC added.
The Shiv Sena has a Rashtriya Karyakarini (national executive) and a Pratinidhi Sabha. The Rashtriya Karyakarini, under the Shiv Sena’s 2018 constitution, is second only to the party chief and comprises 13 members elected for five years. Under the 1999 constitution, the Rashtriya Karyakarini had 19 members.
These members are called ‘Shiv Sena netas (leaders)’. It is the Pratinidhi Sabha that elects the Rashtriya Karyakarini and the party chief from among the members of the Karyakarini.
The Pratinidhi Sabha comprises the rank and file of the Shiv Sena’s administration and public representatives — the party chief, party leaders, deputy leaders, secretaries, samanvayaks (coordinators), and sampark pramukhs as well as elected MLAs and MPs.
The EC said that accotding to the 2018 constitution, the Shiv Sena chief has the power to appoint the functionaries of the Pratinidhi Sabha. Since the Rashtriya Karyakarini is elected by the Pratinidhi Sabha, it does not give the confidence of being a “truly democratic body,” the order said.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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