Mumbai: The new Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra won the floor test on Monday by a 164-99 margin, proving his government’s majority and cementing his position as chief minister of the state and the leader of the Shiv Sena.
While 164 votes were polled in favour of Shinde, 99 votes against the newly formed BJP-Shinde camp coalition.
Shiv Sena MLA from Shetkari Kamgar Paksh of Uddhav Thackeray faction Shyamsundar Shinde also voted in favour of Eknath Shinde in the trust vote. He did not join the Shinde faction but voted in their favour.
The trust vote comes a day after BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker. On Sunday Narwekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena’s legislative party leader and also recognised the appointment of Gogawale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena.
Today’s floor test was held during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly that began on Sunday.
A total of three members abstained from voting.
Soon after the Trust Vote ended, Shiv Sena leader and earlier whip Sunil Prabhu raised the issue of whip but Speaker interrupted him and asked him to sit and said he has already everything on record.
Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray arrived in the House just minutes before the doors were locked for a head count.
Former ministers Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar of Congress were out of the House, so they will not be able to vote. Nawab Malik amd Anil Deshmukh also didn’t come to House for voting.
Earlier, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar allowed the demand of the Opposition and began the division of votes in the trust vote.
The trust vote was proposed by BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar and Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale. After a voice vote, on proposal of trust vote, opposition members demanded a division of vote.
Meanwhile, MLA of the Uddhav Thackeray faction Santosh Bangar joined the Eknath Shinde camp just before the trust vote.
Eknath Shinde, who led a revolt against Shiv Sena leading to the collapse of the 31-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 30.
Fadnavis, who was Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014-19, announced at a joint press conference in Mumbai on Thursday that Eknath Shinde will be the new CM. Fadnavis also announced at the press conference that he will not be part of the government.
