Supreme Court to hear petition challenging post-poll Maha Vikas Aghadi between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a petition seeking the post-poll alliance between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in Maharashtra to be declared unconstitutional and null and void. The petition has been filed by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha spokesperson Pramod Pandit Joshi. A bench headed by Justice NV Ramana and comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Ashok Bhushan will hear the matter on Friday. The same bench had heard the plea of three parties against the decision of Maharashtra Governor to swear-in BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister and NCP’s Ajit Pawar as his deputy last week. The bench had asked for a floor test to be conducted in the Assembly, following which the two leaders tendered their resignation, paving way for the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’, comprising the other three parties, to stake claim to form the government. Uddhav Thackeray will take oath as the 18th chief minister of Maharashtra at Shivaji Park today. He was unanimously elected as the leader of the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance. Joshi, in his petition, has claimed that the Shiv Sena has betrayed the people of Maharashtra as it earlier fought the elections with the BJP but in a post-poll alliance formed a government with the other two parties. Joshi further claimed that the people of Maharashtra, who voted for the BJP wanted it to form the government.