Mumbai Chief minister Eknath Shinde proved his government’s majority on the floor of the house on Monday, easily winning the trust vote with 164 votes in the 287-member strong Assembly.
The MVA could only muster 99 votes. In the 24 hours separating the Speaker’s election and the trust vote, the MVA had lost 8 supporters. This reduction from 107 votes that it got for the Speaker’s election to 99 in the trust vote is indicative of alliance’s daily disintegration.
In his subsequent address that was fraught with emotion the newly-minted CM repeated his claim to being the real Shiv Sena. “Our numbers in the legislative party are now above 40. They will increase in the future. Bharat Gogawale has been recognised as the chief whip and I as the group leader. Those who have defied the whip will face action,” he said alluding to the 15 Shive Sena MLAS, including Aaditya Thackeray, who voted against Shinde on Monday.
The BJP-Shinde alliance also passed a confidence motion in favour of the Speaker Rahul Narwekar empowering him to act against the 15 Shiv Sena MLAs. This is to counter the no-confidence motion against the Narwekar that was moved by the Shiv Sena on Sunday.
Except for the Speaker who was presiding over the proceedings, 20 MLAs were absent including 11 from Congress, 6 from NCP (Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are in jail), 2 from the BJP and 1 from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In addition, 3 MLAs—2 from SP and 1 from AIMIM– abstained from voting though they were present in the House during Monday’s trust vote.
Congress’ absentees included heavyweights like Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wedettiwar, Dheeraj Deshmukh, Praniti Shinde, Jitesh Antapurkar, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Raju Awale, Mohan Hambarde, Kunal Patil, Madhavrao Jawalgaonkar and Shirish Chaudhary, many of them turned up late and were found running to the enter the House in the fashion of tardy Mumbaikers running to catch local trains. Those from the NCP included Dattatray Bharane, Anna Bansode and Sangram Jagtap. Both the two BJP MLAs who were absent, Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, are unwell.
In his address after winning the trust vote, Eknath Shinde struck a conciliatory note saying, “Everyone should feel that this is their government. All religions will be respected and no religion will be disrespected in this coalition government.”
“The people had wanted this government to come to power two-and-a-half years ago,” said Shinde, later telling reporters that Shiv Sena legislators had felt “stifled” in the previous MVA government. He assured that his government would not be vindictive and neither would it needlessly review the previous government’s decisions. “We will review only those decisions which were incorrect,” he told the media.
Sunil Prabhu of the Shiv Sena, comprehensively outnumbered on Monday, attacked speaker Rahul Narwekar’s decision to recognise Shinde and Bharat Gogawale as the group leader and chief whip of the party. “Democratic norms are being crushed underfoot,” he protested. His troubles were further exacerbated when yet another MLA, Sanjay Bangar, switched sides, swelling the rebel ranks to 40.
The House proceedings concluded with the election of former deputy CM, NCP’s Ajit Pawar as the leader of opposition in Assembly.