Mumbai (Maharashtra): A day after National Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was elected as the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, he met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. Vidhan Sabha, Governor Hon’ble @BSKoshyari ji’s goodwill visit,” Pawar tweeted after the meeting. Calling it a courtesy call, the Maharashtra Governor’s office tweeted, “Newly elected Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ajit Pawar at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai. Met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. It was a courtesy visit.”
Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and National Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was on Monday elected as the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly after party leader Jayant Patil proposed his name for the same in the Assembly. The principal secretary of the assembly told that Pawar’s name for the LoP was proposed by NCP leader Jayant Patil and the assembly had approved it.
Earlier on Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the crucial floor test in the state assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted in favor of Shinde, while 99 voted against it. Three MLAs abstained from voting, while 21 MLAs, including Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar, remained absent.
Notably, Shinde led a rebellion against the Shiv Sena, which led to the collapse of the 31-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 30. In the floor test, Shiv Sena MLA from Shetkari Uddhav Thackeray faction’s Kamgar Paksha Shyamsunder Shinde also voted in favor of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in the trust vote. He did not join the Shinde faction, but voted in their favour.
Former Congress ministers Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were out of the house, so they could not vote, while Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh also did not come to the house to vote. Soon after the trust vote was over, Shiv Sena leader and former whip Sunil Prabhu raised the issue of the whip but the Speaker interrupted him and asked him to sit, saying he already had everything on record. The trust vote comes a day after BJP’s Rahul Narvekar was elected Speaker of the Assembly. On Sunday, Narvekar reinstated Shinde as the leader of the Sena’s legislature party and also recognized the appointment of Gogavale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena.
Maharashtra Deputy CM Fadnavis held a roadshow in Nagpur
Maharashtra’s new Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held a roadshow in Nagpur on Tuesday and was accorded a warm welcome on his arrival in the city. Following his recent victory in government formation in the state, Fadnavis arrived at the Nagpur airport to visit his home, from where he took out a road show from the airport.
“The people of Nagpur have always loved me and elected me five times. Today I have come to Nagpur for the first time after becoming the Deputy Chief Minister. I express my gratitude to those who have come to show their love for me.” Deputy Chief Minister said.
Fadnavis’s visit came a day after the Eknath Shinde-BJP alliance won the trust vote in the state assembly. majority and to consolidate his position as the Chief Minister of the state and leader of Shiv Sena. 164 votes were cast in favor of Shinde, while 99 against the newly formed BJP-Shinde camp alliance.
Shiv Sena calls Eknath Shinde’s trust vote victory ‘theft of majority’
A day after Eknath Shinde won the trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday termed the victory as “theft of majority” and said it was “not the trust of the people” of the state. The party took a jibe at Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, asking who had stopped him from taking oath as the Chief Minister.
At the time of the floor test, the BJP-backed Shinde group had the support of 164 MLAs and 99 voted against it. Some Congress and NCP MLAs were absent at the time of the floor test. Surprisingly, senior ministers like Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar could not reach the assembly.
Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana in its editorial on Tuesday said, “This question stands before Maharashtra. BJP and Shinde faction passed the trust vote in the assembly, it is a stolen majority. It is not the faith of 11 crore people of Maharashtra, “Added it.
The mouthpiece further said that Fadnavis’ remarks on his return were witty and cautioned that he “should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the chief minister”. Weird. The way he came, he would not have come in his dreams. They should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the Chief Minister. There is power change in Maharashtra, in which even love of principles, morals and ideas are not visible,” it said.
(with ANI inputs)