Stolen Majority: Shiv Sena After Maharashtra CM Shinde Wins Trust Vote

Mumbai: A day after Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led government proved its majority in the Assembly by surpassing the majority mark of 144, Shiv Sena termed it a “stolen majority”.

The party also took a jibe at Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking who was the person who stopped him from taking oath as a Chief Minister.

“At the time of the floor test, the BJP-backed Shinde group got the support of 164 MLAs and 99 voted against it. Some MLAs from Congress, and NCP were absent during the majority of the test. It is surprising that senior ministers like Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar could not reach the assembly. Devendra Fadnavis has thanked the invisible forces that made most of the tests successful. He gave a speech on how strong, great leader Shinde is, but who is the invisible force stopping Fadnavis from taking oath as the chief minister?” Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna said in its editorial on Tuesday.

This question is standing before Maharashtra. BJP and Shinde faction passed the trust vote in the assembly, theft of majority This is not the trust of 11 crore people of Maharashtra.

The mouthpiece further said that Fadnavis’ remarks on his return were witty and cautioned that he “should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the chief minister”.

“I came again and brought others along, on this occasion Devendra Fadnavis made a statement which is funny. The way he came, he would not have come in his dreams. He should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the Chief Minister. There is a change of power in Maharashtra, in which the love of principles, morals and ideas is also not visible,” it said.

Saamna also hit out at MLA Santosh Bangar, who had jumped into the Eknath Shinde faction on behalf of Uddhav Thackeray before the trust vote, and said, “The BJP-backed Shinde faction government has won the test of majority in the assembly. MLA Santosh Bangar stood in favour of Shiv Sena till the election for the post of Speaker of the Assembly and what happened in the 24 hours that he joined the vamp of the ‘loyal’ Shinde faction at the time of the vote of confidence?”

The new Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra on Monday won the floor test by a margin of 164-99, proving his government to be a majority and cementing his position as chief minister and leader of the Shiv Sena. 164 votes were cast in favour of Shinde, while 99 were against the newly formed BJP-Shinde camp alliance.

Shiv Sena MLA from Shetkari Kamgar Paksha of Uddhav Thackeray faction Shyamsundar Shinde also voted in favour of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in the trust vote. He did not join the Shinde faction but voted in their favour. The trust vote comes a day after BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker.

On Sunday Narwekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena’s legislative party leader and also recognised the appointment of Gogawale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena. A total of three members abstained from voting.

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