Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a letter to the state assembly secretary Wednesday, for a special session of the assembly for the state’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to seek a trust vote to prove its majority. The MVA is a coalition of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The Shiv Sena is, however, likely to approach the SC against the governor’s order.
Meanwhile, Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP questioned the order on social media. “How can a floor test be asked for when the disqualification of 16 MLA has deferred by the Supreme Court till 11th July?” she tweeted.
How can a floor test be asked for when the disqualification of 16 MLA has deferred by the Supreme Court till 11th July?
How can these MLAs participate in the floor test till their disqualification status not decided and the other matters for which notice sent is subjudice?— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) June 29, 2022
The Supreme Court Monday gave the rebels time till 12 July to respond to a notice issued by the deputy speaker of the state assembly on the cancellation of their membership.
The Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut too called it “an unlawful activity as the matter of disqualification of our 16 MLAs is pending in the Supreme Court”.
According to the letter, the trust vote shall be conducted Thursday, 30 June, between 11 am to 5 pm. ThePrint has a copy of the letter.
The entire proceedings will be live telecast and the Governor has also asked that the security in the Vidhan Sabha area should be adequate “looking at the provocative statements made by certain leaders”.
“In order to ensure fair and free voting process, it shall be conducted by asking members to rise in their seats for the purpose of counting votes as contemplated under Legislative Assembly rules,” the letter further added.
Eknath Shinde, leader of the rebel Sena MLAs, told reporters in Guwahati Wednesday that the they will go to Mumbai Thursday for the trust vote. The group has been camping in Guwahati for the past few days.
Also read: Not Shinde vs Uddhav, Shiv Sena has an identity crisis. Choose Hindutva or get a makeover
BJP meets the Governor
BJP leader and leader of opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, along with other state BJP leaders met the Governor at Raj Bhavan late Tuesday night to raise the request for the MVA government to prove its majority in the assembly. Fadnavis had earlier in the day visited Delhi to meet party senior leaders J.P. Nadda and Amit Shah.
“We have given a letter to the Governor about the current state of the state via email and by personally meeting him. Shiv Sena’s 39 MLAs are out and they say that they don’t want to stay with the Congress and NCP, which means they are not with the government and don’t want to stay with MVA,” Fadnavis told reporters Tuesday night.
Fadnavis added: “The CM and the government have lost the majority. And so we have requested the Governor to ask the government to prove their majority . The Governor will take a decision regarding this.”
The question now is who will issue the whip.
According to the Shinde faction, Eknath Shinde is the legislative leader and Bharatshet Gogavale is the whip, but the party led by Uddhav Thackeray has appointed Ajay Choudhary as its legislative leader and Sunil Prabhu the chief whip.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Uddhav Thackeray’s failing trapeze act on secularism-Hindutva has lessons for other parties
Source: The Print
