MUMBAI: Celebrations broke out at Varsha, the CM’s official residence, after the apex court verdict on Thursday with party workers congratulating Eknath Shinde and distributing sweets. The mood was more sombre at Matoshree, the Thackeray residence, and at the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar despite the SC’s harsh observations against the governor and tagging as illegal the appointment of the Shinde group’s Bharat Gogawale as whip.
Sena (UBT) functionary Sushma Andhare described the SC order as “operation is successful but patient is dead”, reflecting the mood. “The order was expected. This takes a lot of time. The matter will now go to the 7-judge bench. In this time, the tenure of these MLAs will be over,” said Andhare.
People’s Republican Party (PRP) chief Jogendra Kawade, who has allied with the Shinde-led Sena, joined in sloganeering at Varsha. Addressing the crowd, Shinde said: “I have welcomed the SC’s order. The SC has given a slap on the face of those who called this government illegal and unconstitutional… All our alliance partners and party workers are happy.”
Another Sena (UBT) functionary said the party was hoping for more. “We were all banking on the SC order. We know it is technical, but the fact that the CM is going to continue has come as a setback.” He said they will go and tell the people that “SC has upheld that the 40 MLAs are traitors and BJP orchestrated the defection with khoke (moneybags)”.