Floor test of strength on Day 2 of special session

Mumbai: The freshly minted Speaker of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha, Rahul Narvekar, may take off disqualification proposal of 16 Eknath Shinde rebel MLAs placed before his Deputy Speaker, Narhari Zirwal last week the off the table.

Confirming this, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “The whip issued by the Thackeray-led group does not apply and there are two-three judgements in this regard. The matter will be argued in court. However, they have again moved a motion before the Speaker’s office today only with an intention to place on record procedural steps taken by them for the benefit of the Supreme Court.” Fadnavis added that the Shinde-led government will demonstrate its strength on the floor of the house on Monday adding that the confidence vote would be done in 45 minutes.

Referring to the Thackeray MLAs group’s whip, he noted that it was a classic example of the legal term of ‘non est’ where the writ would have to be recalled for failing to adhere to the constitutional test of legitimacy. “In the legislature, a party with two-thirds of the MLAs hold the legitimacy while the Thackeray faction is citing Schedule 10, Chapter 2 of the rules to claim that the 16 Shinde camp MLAs voluntarily gave up their membership when they broke away from the government. The matter will be decided on constitutional legality in the court,” Fadnavis said.