maharashtra floor test today
Highlight
- Fadnavis claims Shinde government will prove majority with 166 votes
- The BJP currently has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.
- Shinde is leading over 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and some independent candidates.
Maharashtra Floor Test: The new government in Maharashtra is all set to face a floor test on Monday, the second day of the special session of the Assembly. On Sunday, 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 Mumbai hotel to chalk out a floor test strategy.
“The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government is set to face the floor test on Monday, the second day of the special session of the Assembly,” he said. What would be the strategy of the government, it was discussed in the meeting held in the presence of everyone. MLA today,” the sources said.
Sources said Eknath Shinde, who is claiming the support of 40 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, said he is hopeful that the government will pass the floor test like the Speaker’s election held today.
Fadnavis claimed that the Shinde government would prove majority with 166 votes.
He said, “Youngest speaker candidate won the speaker’s election today with 164 votes as 2 MLAs could not come due to health reasons. We will prove our majority with 166 votes in the trust vote.”
At present, the BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly and Shinde is leading over 39 rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena and some independents.
Recently after the death of a Shiv Sena MLA, the present strength of the assembly has come down to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
The Shinde-led camp and the BJP scored a major victory on Sunday as BJP’s Rahul Narvekar was elected Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly defeating Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi.
General Speaker removes Shiv Sena’s Ajay Chaudhary from the post of Legislature Party leader before trust vote
Meanwhile, in a major setback to the Uddhav Thackeray faction, a day ahead of the crucial trust vote of the Eknath Shinde-BJP government, the newly-appointed Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday night removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Choudhary as the leader of the legislature party. A letter issued by president Rahul Narvekar’s office reinstated Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena’s legislature party and appointed Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena, replacing Sunil Prabhu, belonging to the Thackeray faction.
Shiv Sena said the decision would be challenged in the court.
The letter addressed to rebel Shiv Sena MLA and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan administration had received a letter on June 22 from his faction on the removal of Shinde as group leader of Shiv Sena legislature party by party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Objection was raised. ,
After discussing the legality of the matter, the Speaker rejected the appointment of Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Choudhary as group leader of the party’s legislature wing, said the letter issued by the office of President Rahul Narvekar on Sunday night.
The letter also recognized the reinstatement of Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena’s House and the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as the party’s chief whip in place of Sunil Prabhu.
The development comes in a major blow to the Thackeray faction, which comprises 16 MLAs, who will be bound by a whip to be issued by Gogawale for Monday’s trust vote.
If these 16 MLAs refuse to obey the whip, they may face disqualification.
(with inputs from ANI)
Read also | Maharashtra politics: Eknath Shinde government a ‘two wheeler’: NCP