Sunil Prabhu, chief whip of the Shiv Sena, has approached the Supreme Court after the governor of Maharashtra directed CM Uddhav Thackeray to prove a majority tomorrow in the legislative assembly, as per latest reports. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi has mentioned the matter before the apex court for urgent hearing on Wednesday evening.
The news comes soon after Sena MP Sanjay Raut announced that the Uddhav Thackeray faction would challenge Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to call for a floor test on Thursday. “This is an unlawful activity. The issue of disqualification of 16 MLAs is pending in the Supreme Court. Now if BJP and Governor House are trying to bring down the government, we will approach the Supreme Court and seek justice,” said Raut. “The speed in which the Raj Bhavan has acted on the demand [by BJP] is faster than the Rafael jets purchased by [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi,” he remarked.
Since the Supreme Court has deferred the matter of party MLAs’ disqualification until July 12, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that asking the chief minister to sit for a floor test on June 30 would be contempt of court.
Governor Koshiyari has instructed the secretary of the state legislature to convene the special session of the assembly tomorrow for a trust vote against the chief minister, and conclude the proceedings of the floor test by 5 pm Amid the intensifying political crisis, he wrote to Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday, asking him to prove his majority in the assembly session. Additionally, Governor Koshyari expressed concern about the current political state of affairs in Maharashtra, describing it as “very disturbing”.
“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. In this backdrop, 7 independent MLAs wrote an email to the Raj Bhavan on June 28, 2022, stating that “the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has lost the confidence of the majority on the House floor, thereby making it imperative to conduct a floor test at the earliest.” In addition, Koshiyari reported that he had been personally visited by Devendra Fadnavis as the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, who informed him of the situation and provided a letter saying that the chief minister had lost the majority in Vidhan Sabha.
“The violence unleashed in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra against some of the 39 MLAs including breaking down their offices does pose a threat to their life and also that of their family members. After having carefully gone rough 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 letter concluded, urging Thackeray to schedule the session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
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The special session is scheduled for June 30, 2022 at 11:00 am, with only the trust vote against the chief minister on the agenda. The proceedings of the floor test will be completed by 5 pm tomorrow, and the governor has requested the necessary arrangements be made to broadcast the proceedings live.
In yesterday’s hearing of Eknath Shinde’s petition, the MVA government counsel expressed concern about a possible floor test session, to which the Supreme Court said it was open if anything went wrong.
On June 21, Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde and other party members checked into the Le Meridian hotel in Surat and went incommunicado, causing a dilemma for the MVA administration. Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of Maharashtra, was asked by the rebels to cut connections with the NCP and Congress and rejoin the NDA. When he refused, the camp relocated to Guwahati. Shiv Sena filed a plea asking for the disqualification of 16 party MLAs while the rebels are still holed up in a hotel in Guwahati. They then appealed to the SC against the disqualification processes and Eknath Shinde’s replacement as the head of the Legislative Party.
