Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray tendered his resignation on Wednesday after the Supreme Court allowed the floor test. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also announced his resignation from the post of Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC). Earlier, the Supreme Court on Thursday (June 30) allowed a floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly in which the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will have to prove its majority. The top court also issued notice on a petition by Shiv Sena Chief Whip Sunil Prabhu and said it would be subject to the outcome of the present petition.
Today’s DNA analyzes Uddhav Thackeray’s resignation and the political crisis in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena had given three big arguments in the Supreme Court regarding the postponement of the floor test. Firstly, it said that the Governor of Maharashtra ordered a floor test to be conducted without consulting the government and the council of ministers, which is wrong. Secondly, it said that none of the 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs have so far written to the Governor seeking withdrawal of support to the government. Third, as long as the matter is pending in the Supreme Court, it is unconstitutional to conduct a floor test and by doing so, an attempt is being made to save the membership of the rebel MLAs.
However, these arguments of Shiv Sena had no effect on the court and the court ordered a floor test.
There are a total of 288 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. But due to the death of one MLA, now the number of sitting MLAs has come down to 287 and 144 seats are needed for majority. Before the rebellion, Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress had a total of 152 MLAs. That is, these three parties had 7 MLAs more than the majority. But after the rebellion in Shiv Sena, now this numbers game has changed.