Even as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scheduled the swearing-in ceremony for Friday to induct 22 new Ministers — including 12 belonging to the Shiv Sena — into his Cabinet, a fresh race began on Wednesday between the Congress and NCP over the leader of the Opposition’s post in the State Assembly.
On a day when the BJP Government decided to hold Friday’s swearing-in ceremony in the Vidhan Bhavan courtyard instead of Raj Bhavan, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP staked a claim for the loP’s post in the Assembly, a post that would become vacant when Sena’s current leader of the Opposition Eknath Shinde resigns from his post to join the BJP Government after the impending Cabinet expansion.
In the normal course, the Congress — which has a strength of 42 MlAs in the Assembly as against the NCP’s MlA tally of 41 — is rightful claimant for the loP’s post. However, the Congress’ effective strength in the House has now come down to 37, following the suspension of five party MlAs for allegedly elbowing and preventing the entry of Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao inside the Vidhan Bhavan premises during the protests witnessed outside the State legislature building against the controversial confidence vote won by the BJP Government on November 12.
On its part, the NCP has made an issue of the reduced strength of the Congress in the House to stake a claim for the loP’s post.
Maintaining that his party was now the “rightful claimant” for the loP’s post, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “Since five of its MlAs have now been suspended for a period of two years, the Congress’ effective strength has down to 37. As against the reduced strength of Congress, the NCP’s strength in the House is 41 MlAs (four MlAs higher than that of the Congress). In addition, we have with us our pre-poll ally Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, which has 3 MlAs and an independent MlA Ravi Rana".
“Together our pre-poll allies, the NCP an effective strength of 45 in the House. This means that NCP is the rightful claimant for the loP’s post,” Malik said.
Now that the BJP with its tally of 122 MlAs (including an MlA belonging to a pre-poll ally) – after having mustered the support of 63 MlAs belonging to the Shiv Sena –has little to worry about in terms of proving its majority in the 287-member House, the Winter Session of the Maharashtra Assembly, beginning in Nagpur in on December 8, will witness a fierce legislative battle between the Congress and NCP over the loP’s post.
A lot will depend on Speaker Haribhau Bagde’s ruling on the nomination of a new loP in place of Sena’s Eknath Shinde.If the Speaker decides to revoke the suspension of five MlAs, then the Congress’ strength will be 42, which is higher than that of the NCP with a tally of 41 MlAs. In such an event, then the Congress will bag the loP’s post.
However, if the chair accepts the NCP’s technical argument, then the Sharad Pawar-led party will walk away with the loP’s post.In such a scenario, the NCP will find itself in situation where it can eat the cake and have it too. For, the NCP – currently being single largest Opposition party in the State legislative Council –looks poised to get the loP’s post in the upper house of the state legislature. And, if it manages to wrest the loP’s post in the Assembly, then the NCP will be a force to reckon with in both the Houses.
The Devendra Fadnavis dispensation Wednesday strongly opposed a bunch of petitions filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the formation of BJP government in the state, saying that it had proved on the floor of the Assembly on November 12 that it had the majority support.
Arguing against the PIls filed by former Congress minister Naseem Khan and two other petitioners, the State told a HC bench of Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai that the onus of proving that the government was “in a minority” lay with the petitioners.
When the State defended the confidence vote won by the ruling BJP through a voice vote on November 12, the petitioners argued that the government thus formed without a division of votes as sought by the Shiv Sena and Congress was “unconstitutional” and “illegal”
At one stage, when the lawyers belonging to the petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of the BJP goveernment were making the same arguments, the HC bench observed: "Don't try the patience of the court".
However, the Judges asked the petitioners’ lawyers to place their arguments in writing by Thursday morning so that the court can hear the arguments by them afresh.