MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar called a meeting on Sunday to discuss the trust vote, when the Eknath Shinde government will have to prove its majority. The NCP is also eyeing the post of Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and the names of the candidates will be discussed in the meeting to be held today. NCP leader Jayant Patil told media persons here, “NCP chief Sharad Pawar has called a party meeting later today. There are two topics to be discussed – the trust vote and the leader of the party who will be elected as the leader of the opposition.” ,
Eknath ShindeA 10-day rebellion against Shiv Sena brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The political crisis in Maharashtra ended with Shinde becoming the chief minister and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy chief minister. The Eknath Shinde camp, which had been mostly in Guwahati during the rebellion, had said that the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are traditional rivals of the Shiv Sena.
He had earlier urged Uddhav Thackeray to forge a “natural alliance” with the BJP. Meanwhile, in a maiden victory for the BJP and the Shinde camp, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rahul Narvekar was on Sunday elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Narvekar got a total of 164 votes in his support and 107 against him.
The Speaker’s post in the Assembly fell vacant after Congress’ Nana Patole resigned to take over as the party’s state unit chief in February 2021. In the Speaker’s absence, Deputy Speaker Narhari Jirwal was playing the role of an Acting Speaker in the House. The Shinde-Fadnavis government will have to prove its majority on the floor of the House in a trust vote on Monday in a two-day special session of the Legislative Assembly that began today.