Mumbai, Feb 14: The vote of confidence to be faced by the newly installed Narayan Rane government in Maharashtra on February 17, would be a major test of strength for the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government and the chief minister, hand picked by Sena supremo Bal Thackeray replacing Manohar Joshi last month. Chief minister Rane has been confident in the past few days that the trust vote would be won as he had no doubt that 35 of the 44 independent MLAs in the 289-member Maharashtra assembly would support the 141-strong ruling alliance despite Congress claims of several independents and dissidents in Sena-BJP camp planning to bring government down.With senior Congress leader and opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar camping here for the past few days, speculation has been rife that he had been trying to influence independent legislators and dissidents to reconsider continuance of support to the alliance government.
Sources close to Pawar, have however hotly denied this and reiterated that theMaratha strongman was not interested in toppling the government as he preferred it to collapse due to its own internal contradictions. At stake, note observers, is Thackeray's prestige if Rane should have problems in winning the confidence vote which has been necessitated with the removal of Manohar Joshi on January 30 last.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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