The Supreme Court, which will today hear a Congress-NCP-Sena petition against the BJP government formation in Maharashtra, is expected to pronounce a date for the highly-anticipated floor test. A bench of justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna, in an urgent hearing on Sunday, issued notices to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. The apex court has asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to produce the letter by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari inviting the BJP to form the government, along with the letter of support submitted by Fadnavis.
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For the BJP and Ajit Pawar, it is a numbers game now. Ajit breaking ranks to join the BJP was without the party's knowledge, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar had assured mediapersons that he still had the support of NCP MLAs. “Of the 10-11 [NCP] MLAs who were present at the Raj Bhavan, three are already with me,” he said during a press conference. To succeed in proving majority, the BJP will have to ensure the support of 145 out of the 288 MLAs in the Assembly. The BJP won 105 seats. It needs 40 more. The NCP won 54 seats. Ajit Pawar, if he jumps ship, has to ensure the support of 37 or more MLAs to avoid the spectre of disqualification under the anti-defection law. It is not certain how many MLAs, if any, are backing Ajit Pawar.
13 independents and 16 MLAs from smaller parties will also be very significant in the quest to achieve the 145-mark in the 288-member House in floor test. The Shiv Sena, which is in talks with the Congress-NCP to form a government sans one-time ally BJP, claims to have the support of seven MLAs apart from its own flock of 56. The BJP claims to have the support of 14 more MLAs, taking its tally effectively from 105 to 119. The MLAs supporting the BJP comprise Independents Ravi Rana (Badnera), Kishore Jorgewar (Chandrapur), Geeta Jain (Mira Bhayander), Mahesh Baldi (Uran), Sanjay Shinde (Karmala), Rajendra Raut (Barshi), Pakash Awade (Ichalkaranji), and Rajendra Patil (Shirol). Others in the Assembly include the AIMIM and Samajwadi Party with two MLAs each, and the CPI(M), MNS, RSP and Swabhimani Paksh with one MLA each.
Independent MLA Ravi Rana, who has extended his support to the BJP, claimed the Shiv Sena will witness a "big earthquake" soon. He claimed that Fadnavis will get the support of 175 MLAs.
The Pawar party has reported missing legislators. The NCP on Sunday night claimed three MLAs, who among others had attended swearing-in of Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister on Saturday, were flown to Delhi in a chartered plane by the BJP. NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said the three MLAs have said that they are with the party. He said while Daulat Daroda and Nitin Pawar have sent video messages saying they are with the NCP, another MLA Narhari Zirwal's message was shared on the Twitter handle of the NCP. Daroda, Pawar and Zirwal represent Shahapur, Kalwan and Dindori assembly constituencies, respectively. "Daulat Daroda, Nitin Pawar and Narhari Zirwal were taken to Delhi by the BJP in a chartered plane yesterday," Malik said, adding that "Pawar and Daroda have sent us their video messages saying they are with the party".
Also in a late night development on Sunday, MLAs of the NCP were shifted from a suburban resort to another hotel in Mumbai. The MLAs travelled in a bus to a different hotel from Hotel Renaissance in Powai where they were put up since Saturday night, hours after NCP leader Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP in a coup and took oath as deputy chief minister. The exact number of the MLAs currently with the NCP could not be confirmed. It is also learnt that MLAs of the Shiv Sena, who are staying at Lalit Hotel near the Mumbai airport, will also be moved to another hotel. The Congress moved its MLAs to JW Marriott hotel in Juhu area.
The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats. The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post