The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, won the vote of confidence securing 169 votes, considerably higher than the minimum of 145 required in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, here on Saturday, Nov. 30. The break-up comes to 169 for the MVA government, four abstentions, and walk out before voting by 155 MLAs, including the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 105 and its supporters.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, also voted in favour of the government, along with Rohit Pawar, and Thackeray's son Aditya Thackeray. Those who abstained, included the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Communist Party of India (M) with one legislator each, and the All India Majlis Ittehadul-e-Muslimeen with two legislators.
Incidentally, Ajit Pawar had allied with the BJP's former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and was sworn in the Deputy Chief Minister at an early morning ceremony on November 23, stunning the nation. However, the government collapsed in barely 80 hours. Earlier, amidst ruckus by the Opposition, a resolution seeking the House's confidence in the Thackeray government was moved by Ashok Chavan of the Congress, Nawab Malik of the NCP and Sunil Prabhu of the Shiv Sena.
BJP-led opposition boycotts
Even before it could be taken up for voting, the BJP-led opposition staged a noisy walkout, rising slogans and questioning the manner in which the House proceedings were being conducted. As directed by the Supreme Court, the name and serial number of each MLA voting/abstaining was noted down by a Assembly staff in the open vote, and after the government achieved its full support figure of 169, the pro-tem Speaker declared resolution passed in favour of the government.
The entire House proceedings were telecast live, in accordance with the apex court orders. After winning the confidence vote, a beaming Thackeray, sporting a bright golden-saffron coloured headgear, bowed before the House, expressed his gratitude to the Assembly for reposing confidence in his government and said it would get down to work in right earnest.
MVA leaders attacked the opposition for creating different types of hurdles in the House proceedings and said the ruling alliance's claim of 169 MLAs support was proved correct in the floor test. The trust vote came after a stormy start to the two-day special Assembly session, called specifically for the floor test and the election of Speaker.
Adopting an aggressive stance, the opposition BJP, led by Fadnavis boycotted the session contending that the proceedings contravened the statute and Supreme Court orders. He said the ruling Sena-NCP-Congress removed the earlier pro-tem Speaker Kalidas Kolambkar and appointed another Dilip Walse-Patil in his place, contravening parliamentary rules and regulations.
Fadnavis also took objections to the manner of the oath-taking ceremony held at Shivaji Park on November 28 saying it was not done as per the format, since the names of various past and present national leaders/heroes were invoked. However, Walse-Patil rejected the contentions saying the special session was as per the directives of Governor B.S. Koshyari and in accordance with the Supreme Court orders.
