Mumbai, Nov 30, TEN Network | The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government comfortably won a floor test with the support of 169 lawmakers in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly on Saturday even as the opposition BJP walked out alleging that norms were being flouted.
The coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress has 154 members. The majority mark in the assembly is 145. Four legislators, including those from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), AIMIM and CPI (M) abstained from voting.
The session was delayed by protests and sloganeering from BJP legislators who entered the well of the house, claiming unconstitutional procedure during the swearing in-ceremony.
The floor test was conducted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dilip Walse Patil, who was appointed Protem speaker for the special session spanning over two days of the weekend – Saturday and Sunday.
Following the BJP’s walkout, 172 people were left House. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and minister Subhash Desai who are not the members of the House did not participate in the voting.
The confidence motion was moved by Congress leader Ashok Chavan at 2.30 pm and was seconded by NCP’s leader Nawab Malik and Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde. This was followed by a head count of the legislators present when BJP staged a walk out.
Malik said the BJP’s walkout was a face-saving exercise.
“Their claim of 119 legislators would have been exposed. They did not have the numbers more than 105. Hence they ran. They are playing games to save face. The protem speaker was changed with Governor’s approval, and constitutional means. No rules have been broken,” Malik said.
All three parties in the MVA, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress had issued a whip to their respective MLAs on Saturday, directing them to remain present and vote in the floor test, and cast their vote in favour of MVA, while expressing confidence of sailing through the floor test on Saturday morning.
The proceedings of the legislative assembly were telecast live, and the MVA chose to first have a trust vote in. The trust vote was conducted by the Protem speaker with a head count, that started at 2.45 pm. Walse Patil said, “The trust vote was carried out as per directions of the Supreme Court verdict, hence it is done with open ballot.”
BJP’s Maharashtra chief Chandrakant Patil had on Saturday morning challenged the government to conduct the floor test after appointing a Speaker with a secret ballot. Patil said, “The tradition and set norms say a trust vote is to be held only after a Speaker is elected through a secret ballot. But this government is insisting on holding trust vote by a Protem speaker. They also changed the Protem speaker.”
Shiv Sena has 56 MLA, NCP has 54, Congress has 44 MLAs, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi which is supporting MVA has 3 MLAs, Samajwadi Party has 2 MLAs, 7 MLAs from other parties such as CPM, Krantikari Shetkari Paksha, and 4 independant MLAs. The BJP which has 105 MLAs, had claimed the support of 116 lawmakers.
Legislative leader of BJP and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis later said, “The governor should have issued summons, as the previous session was adjourned after the national song. The summons was not issued. So BJP has moved saying this session is invalid. The oath taken by Uddhav Thackeray is also invalid, because they invoked leaders Bal Thackeray, and Sonia Gandhi.”
The BJP also said it would boycott the assembly until a Speaker is elected. Fadnavis said, “Until a Speaker is elected, floor test cannot be conducted. NCP, Congress, and Shiv Sena hid their MLAs, and refrained from electing a speaker on Saturday. This is a violation of the SC order, and the Constitution. We will not sit in the assembly until the Constitution is followed, we have resolved.” (HT)
