The Congress on Thursday said the Supreme Court judgment had hung a cloud over last year’s change of government in Maharashtra and the only legitimate course before the Assembly Speaker now was to disqualify the defectors, thus posing a threat to the survival of the Eknath Shinde government.

“The BJP has lost on many fronts — legal, political, ethical and moral,” Congress spokesperson and senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi said.

All the partners of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which lost its government following a rebellion by Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction, believe that the judgment has rendered the continuance of the Shinde government untenable.

They maintain that its continuance would violate constitutional morality.

The apex court has said the then governor had directed the June 30, 2022, floor test without “objective material” and that the Speaker’s appointment of a chief whip from the Shinde faction without examining the Uddhav faction’s claim was “illegal”.

Singhvi said the Supreme Court had boxed the Speaker into a corner. “The Speaker has been asked to decide the pending disqualification petition expeditiously. No other result is now possible except disqualification. Any other order will be challenged in the court again,” he said.

“If the Speaker prevaricates, or tries to circumvent the order, that too will be challenged in court, which has desired a resolution within a reasonable time. As we know the character of the BJP, they will try to delay. But there is nothing left after the court’s findings. I predict they will delay shamelessly.”

Asked about the Speaker saying that the Shinde government was safe and that the court had only highlighted some procedural issues, Singhvi was dismissive.

“I don’t like to say that the Speaker is illiterate. If substantive findings of illegality are dismissed as procedural issues, it is like Alice in Wonderland,” he said.

Singhvi added: “The historic judgment has exposed the ugliness of the BJP’s underbelly…. All the legal findings are in favour of the petitioners and against the respondents. The whip by the Shinde faction has been declared illegal. The court said a whip can be issued by a political party, not by a group of legislators.

“The recognition of the Shinde group by the Speaker has been found illegal. The order for a floor test by the governor has been found illegal. It is a slap in the face of key actors who (yielded) to the BJP’s cheap political machinations.

“It is not important whether or not Uddhav Thackeray has been reinstated as chief minister, the essence of the order is that the only option left before the Speaker is to act on the pending petition (on 16 Shinde faction MLAs) and disqualify the defectors.”

Uddhav, the then chief minister and Shiv Sena leader who lost his government to the rebellion, said the court’s ruling had reinforced people’s trust in democracy.

He said he had resigned on moral grounds (before the floor test) and, on the same grounds of morality, (deputy chief minister and BJP leader) Devendra Fadnavis and (chief minister) Shinde should now resign.

“We may have lost power but have emerged stronger in the public domain,” he said.

His son Aditya Thackeray said: “I have always said that this is a government of traitors and it’s been proven today. The corrupt chief minister should resign and face an election.”

NCP president Sharad Pawar said the BJP and morality were opposed to each other and expressed doubts about a legitimate response from the government.

He asserted that the Supreme Court verdict would help the MVA convince people about the BJP’s “misuse” of authority.

The MVA allies believe that any attempt by the BJP to brazen it out would send out a message that the Narendra Modi government had chosen to violate the spirit of the court verdict.

They are also confident that any dirty survival tricks would yield political dividends for them.

Initially, they had felt that the court should have itself disqualified the rebel MLAs but soon realised that the decision to leave it to the Speaker had set up a moral test for the BJP.