Mumbai: With Sena leader Eknath Shinde pulling off a rebellion on Tuesday, all sights could soon be trained on the Raj Bhavan if the 58-year-old legislator and the faction of other Sena MLAs supporting him submit a letter to the deputy speaker of the assembly announcing their defection.
Governor B S Koshyari, who has had run-ins with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray over socio-political issues in the past, may well be placed in the position of deciding whether the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has the numbers to remain in power if leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis stakes claim to forming a government presumably with Shinde’s support.
As it stands, reconciliation between the rebel Sena leader from Thane and the Shiv Sena seems difficult. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hopes that the Thackeray-led coalition government will slip into a minority.
“According to constitutional ethics, the CM will have to resign if the government falls into minority. If he fails to do so, the Governor can take steps in extraordinary situations asking him to go for the floor test. The Shinde-led group of MLAs can also approach the Governor saying they support the BJP and in that case the Raj Bhavan can ask the government to prove its majority on the floor. Each defecting MLA in the Shinde group will have to give letters. On the basis of it, the BJP can stake claim to forming the government,” Constitution expert Ulhas Bapat said.
According to the provision of the Anti-Defection Act, the Shinde-led faction would be disqualified if the number of defecting Sena MLAs is less than two-thirds of its strength in the assembly (55), which comes to 37. However, the faction can be treated as an actual legislative group of Shiv Sena if they succeed to gather 37 members and thus avoid disqualification. “If disqualified, the MLAs will have to face elections,” Bapat said.
Anant Kalse, former principal secretary of state legislature, said that the Governor’s role in the next few days will be significant.
“Being the head of state, the Governor plays an important role in formation of any new government. He takes a call on the special session of the legislature for the floor test, as well as speaker’s elections. As we witnessed during the formation of the government in 2019, the governor enjoys discretionary powers,” he said.
In 2019, the three ruling parties, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, had alleged that the Raj Bhavan did not give them the same opportunity it provided to the BJP to form the government though, after combining their numbers, the coalition government were able to display a clear majority.