Eknath Shinde floor test: Congress-NCP MLAs absent, Aaditya Thackeray walks out during CM address
Maharashtra’s new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the trust vote on the floor of the Assembly on Monday.
In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion, while 99 legislators voted against it. Three MLAs abstained from voting, while 21 MLAs, including Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar, remained absent during the trust vote.
Newly elected Speaker Rahul Narwekar had asked the doors of the Assembly to be closed by 11 am and all the MLAs had to be present before the scheduled time. Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray reached the House just seconds before the Assembly doors closed. He voted against the Shinde government and walked out as the CM’s address began thanking the MLAs for their trust vote.
Aaditya Thackeray may face disqualification proceedings
This was the second time that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was addressing the House and Aaditya Thackeray was seen leaving the House. Earlier, on Sunday, when Eknath Shinde stood up to thank the House after the election of the Speaker, Aaditya got up from his seat and left the Assembly.
MLAs who violate the whip issued by Shiv Sena Chief Whip Bharatshet Gogawale may now face disqualification proceedings as well.
11 Congress MLAs remained absent
During the trust vote, 11 Congress MLAs – Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Dheeraj Deshmukh, Praneeti Shinde, Jitesh Antapurkar, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Raju Awale, Mohan Humberde, Kunal Patil, Madhavrao Jawalgaonkar and Shirish Chaudhary were absent.
Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar came late and could not enter the House till the time of polling. Congress MLA Praneeti Shinde is traveling in New York and is not in Maharashtra for the last two days, while another MLA Jitesh Antapurkar got married on Sunday and could not attend the proceedings.
6 NCP MLAs stayed away from trust vote
Interestingly, neither the Congress nor the NCP had issued a whip for the confidence motion. Talking about the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik, Dattatreya Bharene, Anna Bansode, Babandada Shinde and Sangram Jagtap were absent during the voting.
Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik are currently in jail after their arrest in separate money laundering cases. AIMIM leader and MLA Mufti Mohammad Ismail Qasmi also did not attend the session.