Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, on Monday, 4 July, passed the floor test in the state Assembly with ease, as expected. Shinde got support from 164 MLAs while 99 were in opposition. 11 MLAs of Congress and two from NCP did not vote for various reasons.
Here are three messages for Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray from the floor test:
Uddhav's Grip Is Loosening
The success of the floor test for Shinde again proved that the political game is slipping out of Uddhav's hands. Importantly, his own MLAs are shifted sides to CM Shinde. Moreover, in the Speaker’s election, BJP’s candidate got 164 votes while MVA got 107.
A day after the Speaker's election, when the floor test took place, MVA's numbers were reduced to 99 from 107. This means that eight more Shiv Sena MLAs proved to be turncoats.
This hints that Uddhav Thackeray has somewhere lost control over the political game.
All Is Not Well With Congress
Eleven MLAs of the Congress, namely former CM Ashok Chavan, Praniti Shinde, Jitesh Antapurkar, Vijay Waddettiwar, Jishan Siddique, Dhiraj Deshmukh, Kunal Patil, Raju Awale, Mohan Hambarde, Shirish Chaudhary, and Madhavrao Jawalgaonkar did not vote against the motion in the Assembly.
AICC in-charge of Maharashtra HK Patil said that eight MLAs reached the Assembly late. “I was waiting for them in the lobby, they must have been stuck in traffic,” he said. Ashok Chavan also claimed that he got stuck in traffic and reached a few minutes late, but the gate was closed on time.
The logic of Congress MLAs getting stuck in the Mumbai traffic is not going down well with the political pundits. Few MLAs also missed the voting for the Speaker a day earlier. This indicates that all is not well with the Congress flock in Maharashtra and few may choose to fly away in the coming months for greener pastures.
Smaller Parties Shifted Sides
Two MLAs from the Samajwadi Part, namely Abu Azmi, Rais Shaikh, and Shah Faruk Anwar of AIMIM did not reach the Assembly to vote in the floor test.
Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy CM, thanked the Opposition MLAs who did not participate in the floor test.
“I thank all those who have put their confidence in the Shinde government. I also thank those members who have supported the BJP-Shinde alliance by staying out of the Assembly,” he said.
Shinde Won the Battle, but War Is On
Shinde may have won the battle but whether he could emerge victorious in the war of supremacy in the Shiv Sena is yet to be decided. He may have formed the government with the support of Shiv Sena MLAs but Uddhav Thackeray has said that Shinde is not Shiv Sena’s CM. This is akin to sounding the bugle for the war for capturing Shiv Sena, and he has already begun his efforts.
Speaker Rahul Narvekar has removed Ajay Chaudhary of the Uddhav camp as the leader of the Shiv Sena legislative party and appointed Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the Chief Whip.
The Uddhav camp, in return, canceled the appointment of Sunil Prabhu, a battle of one-upmanship could soon reach the courts.
The Uddhav camp has moved a fresh plea in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Speaker recognising Gogawale as Chief Whip. The top court has listed the matter for July 11 along with other cases related to the Maharashtra political crisis pending before it for hearing.
(Translated from Hindi by Arvind Singh.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)