Mumbai, Nov 25, TEN Network | Devendra Fadnavis, whose government is fighting a challenge over his swearing in from Sena-NCP-Cong-combine, got busy with work in his second stint as chief minister of Maharashtra by signing his first cheque for a relief fund.
The CMO Maharastra tweeted pictures of the CM signing his first cheque for the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The new chief minister was then seen handing over the cheque to a woman.
“CM Devendra Fadnavis’ first signature of this tenure was done on a #CMReliefFund cheque, on reaching Mantralaya, which was handed over to Kusum Vengurlekar by CM,” the Chief Minister’s Office tweeted.
The BJP chief minister got a breather as the Supreme Court on Monday said it will pass an order at 10.30 am on Tuesday on the legality of the chief minister’s swearing in on Saturday, which the opposition alliance allege was conducted in a “hurried and makeshift” ceremony.
The Centre told a bench comprising Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna that the governor had in absolute discretion invited the largest party to form government on November 23. It further said that the BJP had the support of all 54 NCP MLAs to form a government in Maharashtra.
The BJP is the single largest party with 105 MLAs in the 288-member state assembly followed by the Shiv Sena (56), NCP (54) and Congress (44). The Sena broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister’s post.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the BJP and some Independent MLAs, said Fadnavis had Ajit Pawar’s letter of assurance and they had submitted a list of 170 MLAs for forming government.
In Mumbai, leaders of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress on Monday submitted a letter to the governor, reiterating their claim that they have the required numbers to form government in the state.
Amid the continuing political drama and fear of ‘poaching’ of MLAs, the NCP shifted its legislators from a five-star resort to two other hotels in the city.
Congress legislators are at a suburban hotel in Andheri as are the Shiv sena’s MLAs. Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Sunday alleged that BJP leaders had booked rooms in a hotel where his party MLAs were put up and were contacting some of them. (HT)
