Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the floor test in the state assembly with 164 votes in favour of his government.
In the 288-member House, 164 members of legislative assembly voted for the motion of confidence and 99 against. Three legislators abstained, while Congress' Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were among the absentees.
After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote was carried by a majority vote.
Shinde had last month launched a rebellion against the Shiv Sena. Majority of MLAs sided with him, which led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray. He was sworn in as chief minister on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. Bharatiya Janata Party's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as his deputy.
During the floor test, MLAs Abu Azmi and Rais Shaikh of Samajwadi Party and AIMIM's Shah Farukh Anwar abstained from voting. Eleven Congress MLAs--Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Dheeraj Deshmukh, Praniti Shinde, Jitesh Antapurkar, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Raju Awale, Mohan Hambarde, Kunal Patil, Madhavrao Jawalgaonkar and Shirish Chaudhary--were absent during the floor test. Chavan and Wadettiwar came late and were unable to enter the House at the time of the vote.
The NCP legislators absent from the House were Anil Deshmukh, Nawab Malik, Dattatray Bharane, Anna Bansode, Babandada Shinde and Sangram Jagtap. Deshmukh and Malik are currently in jail following arrest in separate money-laundering cases.
The BJP MLAs--Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap--both of whom are seriously ill, also did not come to the House, while BJP's Rahul Narvekar could not vote as he is the speaker.
AIMIM legislator Mufti Mohammad Ismail also did not attend the session.
Ahead of the floor test, Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar from the Uddhav Thackeray camp joined Shinde's faction, taking its tally to 40.
Speaking in the House after the floor test, Fadnavis said when some MLAs were voting, members from the opposition benches shouted 'ED, ED'.
"It is true the new government is formed by ED, which stands for Eknath and Devendra,” the BJP leader remarked.
Without naming Thackeray, Fadnavis claimed Maharashtra witnessed a "deficit of leadership availability" in the last few years. "But, there are two leaders in the House (Shinde and himself), who will always be available for people,” Fadnavis said.
On Sunday, Narvekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary. Narvekar also recognised MLA Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
Following is the party position in the Assembly: Shiv Sena 55, NCP 53, Congress 44, BJP 106, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi 3, Samajwadi Party 2, AIMIM 2, Prahar Janshakti Party 2, MNS 1, CPI (M) 1, PWP 1, Swambhimani Paksha 1, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1, Jansurajya Shakti Party 1, Krantikari Shetkari Party 1, and Independents 13.
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