After almost two weeks long political drama in Maharashtra, the new Eknath Shinde government strolled past the majority mark and won the vote of confidence in the state Assembly. The new BJP-Shiv Sena alliance bagged 164 votes in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly during the floor test conducted on Monday, July 4. Meanwhile, in a major setback, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA was able to secure only 99 votes.
After winning the floor test, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “Our CM Eknath Shinde has won the trust vote, I congratulate him. I thank all the MLAs who supported us.”
#BREAKING | Our CM Eknath Shinde has won the trust vote, I congratulate him. I thank all the MLAs who supported us: Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis after winning floor test
— Republic (@republic) July 4, 2022
Tune in here – https://t.co/JeZboz5J2B pic.twitter.com/Por4TWs7US
“I also want to thank the opposition MLAs who abstained from voting to ensure we have a wide majority,” deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis added.
Pertinently, Maharashtra’s newly appointed Deputy CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had yesterday expressed confidence that the Shinde government will prove its majority. “The youngest speaker candidate won the speaker election with 164 votes today as 2 MLAs couldn’t come due to health issues. We would prove our majority with 166 votes during the vote of confidence,” he had said.
The voting for the floor test was held via a head count. During the floor test, the Speaker allowed the opposition’s demand for a division of votes. To prove its majority, the Eknath Shinde government had to get past the halfway mark of 144 votes in the Assembly.
The test of strength came a day after BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker with a majority of 164 votes in the House.
According to reports, Uddhav Thackeray’s MLAs Santosh Bangar and Shyamsundar Shinde also joined the Eknath Shinde camp minutes before the Maharashtra trust vote.
It may be recalled how the Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 29, minutes after the Supreme Court of India refused to intervene with the Maharashtra Governor’s direction for a trust vote. The Governor had asked Uddhav Thackeray-led SS-NCP-Cong ruling coalition to prove majority in Assembly on June 30, with voting at 5 pm.
The CM had addressed the public through a live video on Facebook and announced that he is resigning. Along with the post of CM, he had also resigned as an MLC.
Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena were facing a coup since 21st June 2022 when Eknath Shinde and 39 other Shiv Sena MLAs rebeled against the Maha Vikas AGhadi alliance in the state and asked to get back into an alliance with their former partner BJP.
Shiv Sena broke the pre-poll alliance with BJP and joined hands with NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra after the 2019 assembly elections. Eknath Shinde and other rebels have emphasized that they essentially took the stand for Hindutva ideology that Shiv Sena was moving away from, especially after making a coalition government with NCP and Congress.
