Newly sworn-in Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday evening brought 50 MLAs, who support him, back to Mumbai city from Goa by a chartered flight on the eve of a special two-day session of the state legislative assembly. An election for the post of Speaker and a floor test of the newly-formed government will be held on July 3-4, respectively.
On July 4, Shinde will face a floor test as he claims to have the support of 50 legislators, including 39 rebel MLAs of the Shiv Sena. Shinde had flown to Goa in the morning to bring them back to Maharashtra’s capital city. The MLAs were camping at a hotel in Goa since June 29 after flying from Assam’s Guwahati. After landing in Mumbai, the legislators would be staying in the President hotel ahead of the special session on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar claimed that Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal can still perform officiating Speaker’s duties even though a no-confidence motion is pending against him. The post of Speaker is vacant since last year after Congress leader Nana Patole resigned to become his party’s state unit president.
Earlier in the day, Uddhav Thackeray’s loyalist and Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi filed his nomination as the candidate of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition for the post, which will be held on Sunday. He will contest against the first-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar.
#WATCH | Mumbai: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde along with his faction of Shiv Sena MLAs after they arrived at Mumbai Airport from Goa pic.twitter.com/b7MfybsVha
– ANI (@ANI) July 2, 2022
Moreover, security had been tightened at the Mumbai airport to avoid any untoward incident in the wake of the recent violent protests against rebel MLAs by Shiv Sena workers in some parts of Maharashtra.
On Wednesday, Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister after the Supreme Court refused to stay the floor test ordered by the governor and it became apparent that Shinde had support of the majority of Sena MLAs. Shinde took oath as CM the next day with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.
On being asked about ongoing power battle to control Shiv Sena, Pawar said there would be a long legal battle ahead for deciding which faction of the Shiv Sena would be considered as the “original” party. “The court will have the final say is what I feel,” he told reporters in Pune.
On Friday, Thackeray, who heads the Sena, removed Shinde as ‘Shiv Sena leader’ for “anti-party activities”. MLA Deepak Kesarkar, a Shinde supporter, said the chief minister will challenge the decision in a court.
(with inputs from PTI)
Read all the Latest News, Breaking Newswatch Top Videos and Live TV here.