Tuesday, July 12 2005 14:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: In a major setback to the expelled Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar today (July 12, 2005) upheld the election of Ramdas Kadam as leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party (SSLP).

Giving his ruling on the petition by Sena MLAs loyal to party executive president Uddhav Thackeray, Kupekar said he is also upholding other decisions taken at the meeting, held in Mumbai on July 6.

Besides electing Kadam as the leader of SSLP, the other decisions taken at that meeting included appointment of Gajanan Kirtikar as the chief whip of the SSLP and Suresh Gambhir and Uttamprakash Khandare in place of whips Kalidas Kolambkar and Vinayak Nimhan (both Rane supporters).

Kupekar said he would give a separate ruling on the petition filed by Rane seeking disqualification of 23 Sena MLAs, who did not attend the meeting convened by him on July 8.

Only 10 MLAs, including Rane, had attended the July 8 meeting.

Even as the Speaker rose to give the ruling, there were noisy scenes by Congress MLAs, who objected to the Speaker disallowing a point of order, raised by their party colleague J Chandurkar.

Raising the point of order, Chandurkar drew the Speaker's attention to the various legal and constitutional provisions applicable in the matter.

As the noisy scenes continued, the Speaker adjourned the house for 15 minutes.