Eknath Shinde-led govt wins vote of confidence with 164-99 margin; big setback for Uddhav

In a massive setback for Uddhav Thackeray, the newly sworn-in Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra won the vote of confidence on Monday. Apart from MLAs of BJP, Shiv Sena, smaller parties and Independents, the ruling coalition also secured the votes of Uddhav camp MLA Santosh Bangar and PWPI legislator Shyamsundar Shinde. This implies that 40 out of 55 Sena MLAs are now with the government.

On the other hand, the opposition secured only 99 votes- 8 less than what it bagged in the Speaker's election a day earlier. Meanwhile, 2 Samajwadi Party MLAs- Abu Asim Azmi and Rais Shaikh and AIMIM MLA Shah Faruque Anwar abstained once again. This development will usher in stability for the new government and also pose fresh questions for the Shiv Sena supremo's hold over the party. 

Lead-up to floor test

On July 3, the Eknath Shinde-led government received a big boost as BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. While he polled 164 votes, only 107 MLAs voted in favour of MVA's candidate Rajan Salvi. A total of 11 MLAs including 7 NCP legislators were not present during the Assembly session when the voting took place. In another blow to the Uddhav Thackeray faction, Narwekar reinstated the Maharashtra CM as the Sena's Legislative Party leader and approved the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as the party chief whip in the place of Sunil Prabhu. 

In a last-minute bid to avoid embarrassment in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the Thackeray camp moved the Supreme Court once again minutes before the floor test today. It challenged newly-elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar's decision to reinstate Shinde and replace the Chief Whip. Senior advocate and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned this matter before a vacation bench of the SC comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari. 

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued, "The speaker has no jurisdiction to recognise whips. This is changing the status quo of proceedings before this court. The speaker yesterday at the stroke of midnight elected the whip". However, the SC bench refusing to grant urgent relief to the Uddhav camp. Justice Banerjee said, "I don't have the papers in front of me. Let all of this come up together on July 11, 2022". Meanwhile, the Eknath Shinde camp has also filed an application with the Speaker seeking disqualification of the 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who violated the party whip.