PIL in SC against emerging post poll alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP & Congress in Maharashtra

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking declaration of the post poll alliance among Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in Maharashtra as "fraud" on the electorate for gaining power.

The plea, likely to be listed for hearing in next few days, 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".

President's rule was imposed in the state on Tuesday 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 PIL filed by Pramod Pandit Joshi also sought a direction to the Centre and the state asking them to refrain from appointing a chief minister from the emerging post poll alliance of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.

"The act of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are unethical and contrary to the constitutional scheme for staking claim to form government without legitimate alliance of political parties, which is far from the concept of the popular government," the petition, filed through lawyer advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, said.

The plea said the post poll coalition between two or more political parties was impermissible under the Constitution as it lacked peoples' mandate.

The political parties, which have been voted out of power, cannot stake claim to form government by entering into such a coalition, it said.

"The governor is under constitutional obligation to consider concept of popular government to be provided. The present post poll coalition is based on power sharing concept of two political parties who have been voted out by the people," the petition said.

The BJP and Shiv Sena, which fought the October 21 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.