India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 26— The Supreme Court Tuesday ordered floor testing for the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra before 5 pm on Wednesday.
Giving its order, a bench of Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna directed that the floor test for proving majority of the Devendra Fadnavis government be held through open ballot, videographed and telecast live. It specifically directed that no secret ballots be held for polling to prove the majority.
The order of the apex court has come on a joint petition filed by Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, challenging the formation of the Fadnavis government. Maharashtra governor B S Koshiyari had administered oath of office to BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and NCP’s Ajit Pawar and appointed them as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, at 8 AM Saturday, within couple of hours of revoking the President’s Rule.
But the three parties — Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress — took objection to it as on Friday they had reached at consensus to form the government with Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister. The trio moved the apex court against formation of the Fadnavis government on Saturday, arguing that it was in contravention of the Constitution and all established norms.
While Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar claim to have majority, 162 MLAs belonging to Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are lodged in a hotel in Mumbai to avoid being approached by the BJP to lure any of them. Some of the NCP MLAs, who were initially reported to have supported Ajit Pawar, returned to Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar has been expelled from the party and also removed from the post of NCP legislature party leader. Another NCP MLA has been appointed in his place as party’s legislature leader.
While both Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar group and Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress claim to have majority of the legislators, floor testing tomorrow will finally prove who enjoys support of majority legislators in the 281-member state assembly and then who will form the government. A suspense will continue till then.
