Shinde-Fadnavis government passes Maharashtra floor test; one more Shiv Sena MLA joins rebel camp

Santosh Bangar, the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, on Monday morning switched over to the Shinde camp, taking the rebel faction tally to 40.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde talks with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai, late Saturday, July 2, 2022. (Photo | PTI)
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde talks with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai, late Saturday, July 2, 2022. (Photo | PTI)

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the floor test in the State Assembly.

In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.

Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote has been carried by a majority vote.

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.

Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post.

BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy CM.

Ahead of the trust vote, one more Shiv Sena MLA from the Uddhav camp joined CM Shinde's faction, taking its tally to 40.

WATCH |

The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs in the 288-member state Assembly.

Santosh Bangar, the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, on Monday morning switched over to the Shinde camp.

Earlier, in a jolt to Uddhav Thackeray ahead of the Eknath Shinde-led government's floor test, Speaker Narvekar had on Sunday reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.

Narvekar 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.

The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction, which will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote.

If these MLAs refuse to follow the whip, they face disqualification.

(With PTI Inputs)

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