The Devendra Fadnavis-led government on Monday easily passed a trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly, amid “boycott” from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena camp. The trust motion, moved by Shiv Sena MLA Uday Samant and other lawmakers, was approved by a voice vote. Speaker Rahul Narwekar announced that the motion had been passed by the House.
The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP ‘Mahayuti’ coalition holds a commanding majority of 230 seats in the 288-member assembly, well above the required majority mark of 144.
Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister for a third term on December 5. Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oaths as deputy chief ministers at the ceremony, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
The proposal for the confidence motion was tabled by Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant, BJP MLA Sanjay Kute, senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil, and independent MLA Ravi Rana.
Earlier, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the 15th Maharashtra legislative assembly. Narwekar filed his nomination papers on Sunday and was elected unopposed as the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) decided not to put up a contest.
Fadnavis, in his congratulatory speech, highlighted that Narwekar is the second member of the lower House to be re-elected to the post since the state’s formation in 1960.
With Narwekar appointed as Speaker, the Mahayuti coalition now has the support of 229 MLAs, including small parties and independents.
Aaditya Thackeray “boycotts” Rahul Narwekar’s election
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said that his party had “boycotted” Rahul Narwekar’s election as the Maharashtra assembly Speaker because he had helped run an unconstitutional government during his previous tenure.
“Everybody knows about the MLAs who escaped to Surat and then Guwahati (after Shiv Sena split in 2022). Everybody has seen how this person, elected as the Speaker (Narwekar), helped run an unconstitutional government in the last two and half years. It is still fresh in our minds how he gave a ruling which affected Shiv Sena and NCP,” Thackeray said.
We hope Narwekar won’t do injustice as a Speaker in the next five years, he added.
Narwekar, the BJP MLA from Colaba in Mumbai, has served as the Speaker of the 14th Legislative Assembly for two and a half years.
During his previous tenure, Narwekar had ruled that the party led by Eknath Shinde was the legitimate and real Shiv Sena after the undivided Sena split. He also held that the faction under Ajit Pawar was the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).