In the floor test in Maharashtra assembly, the Eknath Shinde government passed the trust vote litmus test, crossing the majority mark of 144. The final voted stood 164-99, with three members abstaining. A lot of noticeable defections had taken place from the Uddhav faction. Santosh Bangar, Sena MLA of Uddhav Thackeray faction who had left with the Shinde faction MLAs from hotel, had supported the trust vote, reported news agency ANI.
The Supreme Court on Monday had agreed to hear on July 11 a fresh plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenging the decision of the newly-elected speaker of the Maharashtra assembly to recognise the new party whip of Shiv Sena rebels led by Shinde. A vacation bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee said the fresh plea would be heard by the same bench after the summer break on July 11 along with other pending pleas.
"The speaker has no jurisdiction to recognise whips. This is changing the status quo of proceedings before this court. The speaker yesterday at the stroke of pen at midnight elected the whip," senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the Thackeray group, said.
In a major blow to the Uddhav Thackeray faction ahead of the crucial trust vote of the Shinde-BJP government, the newly-appointed speaker of the Maharashtra assembly on Sunday night had removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the legislative party leader. A letter issued by the office of Speaker Rahul Narwekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena's legislative party leader and also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
