Floor test for Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government on Saturday; Speaker to be elected on Sunday

Mumbai The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray, who took charge as chief minister on Friday, will face a floor test on Saturday during

Mumbai The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray, who took charge as chief minister on Friday, will face a floor test on Saturday during a two-day special session of the Legislative Assembly. The MVA, a coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, has claimed support of 166 MLAs. In the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly, a party or parties need to cross the 145-seat mark to be in majority.

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“The election of the Speaker will be held on Sunday, for which the nominations have to be submitted by 12pm on Saturday. The floor test will be held as per the court ruling,” said Rajendra Bhagwat, secretary, state legislature.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had asked the government to prove its majority by December 3.

While the floor test will be conducted by NCP leader Dilip Walse-Patil, who has been appointed as the Pro-tem Speaker, the Speaker will be elected on Sunday, after Koshyari’s address at a joint session of both Houses of the state legislature and appointment of the leader of Opposition.

To prevent any cross-voting or split, which will be embarrassing for the ruling parties, the state government has decided to first hold the trust vote before the election of the Speaker, according to MVA leaders, who did not wish to be named. With the Pro-tem Speaker set to conduct the trust vote by head count, all parties are likely to issue a whip to their legislators for remaining present and voting during the floor test.

The government, according to MVA leaders, is treading with caution over the trust vote, especially after the unsuccessful attempt to split the NCP, when its senior leader Ajit Pawar joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was sworn-in as deputy chief minister on November 23. He later quit and returned to the NCP fold, forcing BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, too, to resign as chief minister.

Meanwhile, the government in its first cabinet meeting on Thursday decided to request the Governor to replace the Pro-tem Speaker for the trust vote. BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar was appointed as Pro-tem Speaker on the recommendation of the Fadnavis government, to administer oath to the newly elected MLAs. The MVA government recommended the replacement, saying the earlier appointment of Pro-tem Speaker was as per the Supreme Court order, which is no more applicable.

On Saturday, in the Assembly, the confidence motion will be moved by Congress’s Prithviraj Chavan, NCP’s Nawab Malik and Shiv Sena’s Sunil Prabhu. “The voting will be held by head-count process instead of voice vote to maintain transparency, leaving no room to challenge the floor test in the court, especially in wake of the recent SC order,” said a senior NCP leader, on condition of anonymity.