EKNATH SHINDE WINS MAHARASHTRA TRUST VOTE, 164-99

The newly formed government in Maharashtra led by Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde comfortably won the floor test on Monday by a 164–99 margin. With 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs on his side, the BJP throwing the weight of its 106 MLAs behind him and 19 Independent legislators romping up support for Shinde, the result of the trust vote was a foregone conclusion. With his floor test win, Shinde has proved his government’s majority while cementing his position as chief minister and the leader of the Shiv Sena.

Eknath Shinde at the swearing-in ceremony on Monday. ANI

In the trust vote conducted by Speaker Rahul Narwekar, the newly formed Shinde–BJP coalition polled 164 votes, whereas 99 votes were polled against the coalition government. Interestingly, Shiv Sena MLA from Shetkari Kamgar Paksh of Uddhav Thackeray faction Shyamsundar Shinde also voted in favour of Shinde government, though he did not join the Shinde faction. The Uddhav faction got another jolt when one more Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar

joined the Shinde camp just before the trust vote.

The trust vote was proposed by BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar and Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale. After a voice vote on the proposal of trust vote, opposition members demanded a division of vote. Speaker Narwekar allowed the demand and conducted the division of votes by head count.

Earlier in the day ahead of the crucial trust vote, Speaker Narwekar removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the Legislative Party Leader and reinstated Shinde in the position. Before staging a rebellion against Uddhav, Shinde was Legislative Party Leader of the Shiv Sena in the House. The Speaker also replaced Sunil Prabhu with Bharat Gogawale as Chief Whip of Shiv Sena in the House.

It may be recalled that in the height of political crisis, Udhav Thackeray had replaced Shinde by Choudhary as Legislative Party Leader in the state Assembly. The rebel MLAs, who were then camping in Guwahati, had written a letter to the Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal objecting to Choudhary’s appointment. The Shinde camp moved the Supreme Court challenging the disqualification notices issued by Deputy Speaker Zirwal to 16 rebel MLAs as well as Choudhary’s appointment as Shiv Sena Legislature Party Leader.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, on the other hand, ordered Udhav Thackeray to go for a trust vote, which was challenged in the Supreme Court. However, the apex court refused to intervene, thus clearing the deck for a floor test on 30 June. Sensing an imminent defeat, as he has lost the numbers game, Thackeray chose to step down and resigned the same day before going for a trust vote, thus paving the way for a new government to be formed by the BJP and rebel Shinde faction.

Interestingly, amid the ongoing battle between two Shiv Sena factions, led by Shinde and Thackeray, both sides issued separate whips to Shiv Sena MLAs to vote in favour of their respective candidates during the Speaker’s election on Sunday and later accused each other of violating them. Interestingly, the Opposition got 107 votes in favour of their candidate Rajan Salvi.

During the trust vote, several legislators did not show up. Conspicuous by their absence were Congress MLAs Vijay Wadettiwar, Zeeshan Siddiqui and Dheeraj Deshmukh. NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap too was missing, while former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan reached the House after the vote. Upset over the outgoing MAV government’s decision to rename Aurangabad, Samajwadi Party legislators Abu Azmi and Rais Shaikh abstained from voting, so did AIMIM MLA Shah Farukh.