Uddhav Thackeray to face floor test on Thursday

|HT|

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will face the floor test on Thursday at 11 am, as Governor BS Koshyari has sent a letter to the secretary of the state legislature to conduct a floor test where Uddhav will have to prove his majority. The proceeding has to be completed by 5pm Thursday, the letter said. This comes after a purported letter sent from the Maharashtra Governor asking for a floor test on June 30 went viral on social media on Tuesday evening. Maharashtra Raj Bhavan, however, claimed that the letter in circulation on social media was fake. Terming the present political scenario as a disturbing one, the Governor wrote, "There has been extensive coverage in the electronic and print media that 39 MLAs of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party have expressed their sincere desire and decision to exit the Maha Vikas Aghadi government."

"After having carefully gone through all the material available before me including the reports in electronic and print media. I am of the opinion that a floor test for proving the majority of the chief minister is imperative to ensure that the government continues to function with the confidence of the House," the Governor wrote. Calling for proper security arrangement, the Governor wrote, "Looking to the provocative statements made by certain leaders, adequate security shall be deployed outside and inside teh Vidhan Bhavan to maintain the sanctity of the voting process and also to preempt any law and order situation which may arise."

The governor also called for a live telecast of the trust voting process.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned the Governor's letter and asked how the floor test can be asked when the disqualification of 16 MLAs has been deferred by the Supreme Court. "How can these MLAs participate in the floor test till their disqualification status not decided and the other matters for which notice sent is subjudice?" Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted terming the move of a floor test as "contempt of court proceedings". On Wednesday, Eknath Shinde and a few of the rebel MLAs went to Guwahati's Kamakhya temple. "I'm here to pray for the peace and happiness of Maharashtra. Will go to Mumbai tomorrow for the floor test & follow all the process," Eknath Shinde said.

For the last one-and-a-half week, the Maharashtra political situation has been in doldrums following the rebellion of a group of MLAs led by Shinde. Amid to-and-fro actions, the Maharashtra assembly took steps to disqualify 16 of the rebel MLAs against which the rebel faction moved the Supreme Court and got it stayed.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)