NE NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena-NCPCongress alliance passed the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on Saturday. Altogether 169 MLAs voted in favour of the motion of confidence after the BJP, which has 105 MLAs, staged a walkout before the head count began in the 288-member House.
The headcount was held after the voice vote following the Supreme Court directive to ensure transparency, pro tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil informed the House.
The walkout was against the “unlawful manner” in which the ministers were sworn-in and the House session convened, BJP legislature unit leader Devendra Fadnavis said. He faced flak from the ruling combine, with former CM Prithviraj Chavan describing Fadnavis, who resigned as chief minister on November 26 before his three-day-old government faced the floor test in the Assembly, as a sore loser.
“Fadnavis ran away from the arena like a sore loser and the country has seen this live on TV,” Chavan said. The motion of confidence was moved by former CM Ashok Chavan and seconded by senior NCP and Sena members.
Four MLAs abstained during the vote. Two were from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), one from the CPM and the other from the MNS, which is led by Uddhav’s estranged cousin Raj Thackeray.
As directed by the Supreme Court, the name each MLA voting/abstaining in the floor test was noted down. The entire House proceedings were telecast live. When voting was being held, there were 174 members in the House, including the pro tem speaker, indicating that the BJP had managed to get the support of nine non-party MLAs.
The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress formed the government after the Thackeray-led party fell out with pre-poll ally BJP over sharing the chief ministerial post.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 105 seats in the October 21 polls. Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress won 56, 54 and 44 seats respectively.
