The five-day old Shiv Sena-BJP government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde comfortably won the floor test today, ending two weeks of political turmoil in Maharashtra. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.
Three legislators abstained from voting, while Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were among those absent during the trust vote. Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote was carried by a majority vote. After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
The NCP legislators absent from the House were – Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik, Dattatray Bharane, Anna Bansode, Babandada Shinde and Sangram Jagtap. Deshmukh and Malik are currently in jail following arrest in separate money laundering cases.
The BJP MLAs – Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap – both of whom are seriously ill, also did not come to the House, while BJP’s Rahul Narvekar could not vote as he is the Speaker.
AIMIM legislator Mufti Mohammad Ismail also did not attend the session.
