Mumbai: The new Maharashtra government, which came to power after Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde’s 10-day rebellion brought the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, will face the floor test on Monday, the second day of the special session of the state Legislative Assembly.
Earlier on Sunday evening, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde along with his faction of Shiv Sena MLAs held a meeting with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, BJP MLAs, and other party leaders at a hotel in Mumbai to chalk out a strategy for the floor test. ‘The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government is set to face a majority test on Monday, the second day of the special session of the legislature. What exactly will be the strategy of the government was discussed in the meeting held in the presence of all the MLAs today’, ANI reported, quoting sources.
Eknath Shinde, who has been claiming the support of 40 rebel Shiv Sena legislators said that he expects the government to be successful in the floor test to be held tomorrow like the Speaker’s election held today, sources added. Fadnavis claimed that the Shinde government will prove its majority with 166 votes. ‘The youngest speaker candidate won the speaker election with 164 votes today as 2 MLAs couldn’t come due to health issues. We would prove our majority with 166 votes in the vote of confidence’, he said. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray termed Monday’s floor test as a ‘morality test’ for MLAs.
At present, the BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly and Shinde is leading 39 rebel Shiv Sena legislators and some Independents. After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144. Shinde-led camp and the BJP scored a big win on Sunday as BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly defeating Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi.
Interestingly, amid the ongoing battle between two Shiv Sena factions led by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray, both sides issued separate whips to the party MLAs to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the speaker’s election on Sunday and later accused each other of violating them. Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant, who is in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, said that 39 party MLAs did not obey their whip adding that they have sought their disqualification from the state Assembly. However, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar has taken on record the letter sent by Bharat Gogawale, who is Chief Whip of the Eknath Shinde-led faction. Gogawale said that 16 MLAs of Shiv Sena violated the whip.
Post Your Comments