Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra govt wins trust vote with 164 votes

Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the floor test with 164 votes, 20 above the magic mark. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote has been carried by a majority vote. Shinde had taken the oath as the chief minister of the state last week after forming the government with the support of the BJP. Just minutes before the vote, Santosh Bangar, Sena MLA from the Uddhav camp, joined Shinde’s faction, taking its tally to 40. The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs in the 288-member state Assembly. Bangar is the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district. Shyamsundar Shinde, from Shetkari Kamgar Paksh, voted in favour of Shinde though he did not join the Shinde faction. While AIMIM and Samajwadi Party abstained from voting, two Maharashtra Congress MLAs Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were late and showed up after the Shinde camp had already won the trust vote. The youngest Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique, another Congress MLA Dheeraj Deshmukh, and Nationalist Congress Party’s Sangram Jagtap, who were present for the speaker vote on Sunday, did not show up. Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray, voted against the whip issued by the Shiv Sena chief whip Bharat Gogawale and may face disqualification proceedings. The test of strength came a day after BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected Speaker — a significant move in view of the Sena’s pending legal appeal to disqualify 16 rebel MLAs, including the new Chief Minister. In late night developments on Sunday Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar had reinstated Shinde as Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary. Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction. Meanwhile, Gogawale (Eknath Shinde faction) has given a petition to the Assembly Speaker seeking suspension of 16 MLAs of the party for violation of whip. The 16 MLAs will be issued notice for suspension, confirmed the Speaker’s office. With inputs from Agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.