‘Why are you insecure?’: BJP slams Uddhav govt for changing protem speaker ahead of trust vote

Maharashtra BJP has challenged the Uddhav Thackeray led Aghadi government to elect a regular speaker by secret vote before taking the floor test on Saturday afternoon if it indeed has the support of “170 MLAs”.

The Shiv Sena led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government will seek a trust vote at 2 pm with the protem speaker in charge of the house.

The BJP, which lost out to the former alliance partner Shiv Sena in a bitter battle for power, accused the new government of violating the rules of the assembly and the constitutional provisions from the day it took oath of office.

“The tradition and set norms say a trust vote is to be held only after a speaker is elected through a secret ballot. But this government is insisting on holding trust vote by a protem speaker. They also changed the protem speaker,” BJP state chief Chandrakant Patil said.

The ruling alliance replaced BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar with NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil as the protem speaker ahead of the trust vote.

“Why are they insecure if they have support of 170 MLAs,” Patil asked?

The BJP has fielded Kisan Kathore for the Speaker’s position and challenged the coalition government to show their strength by holding secret ballot to elect the speaker

“If they are secure let the elections be held through a secret ballot,” Patil said.

The BJP said it was also petitioning the Governor over Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his six ministers invoking names of party leaders, freedom fighters, Maratha king Shivaji etc in their oaths “against the constitutional norms”.

“The oath is to be taken in a certain format, what happened was not legal. We can move this petition to court as well after the governor’s office,” Patil said.