Maharashtra: The newly sworn-in CM of Maharashtra, titled as Rebel Shiv Sena leader in recent days, won the floor test in the Maha Legislative Assembly. Eknath Shinde comfortably bagged 164 votes in the trust vote litmus test against the Thackeray faction which scored 99.
Several defections had taken place a day before the trust vote came in. The newly appointed speaker of the assembly had removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudary as the legislative party leader. Bharat Gogawale stepped in as the chief whip of Sena replacing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
Santosh Bangar, Sena MLA of Uddhav Thackeray faction who had left with the Shinde faction MLAs from the hotel, had supported the trust vote, sources in the know said.
BSP and AIMIM opted out of voting while 8 others from the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance remained absent. Interestingly, the opposition camp got 107 votes in the election for Speaker yesterday.
It was on June 20th, that Shinde’s rebellious attitude sparked high voltage tension in Maharashtra politics which led to the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray after he was asked to prove majority.