After almost two weeks of prolonged political turmoil in Maharashtra, the Eknath Shinde-led new government rambled past the majority mark and won the vote of confidence in the state Assembly. The new BJP-Shiv Sena collaboration bagged 164 votes in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly during the floor test administered on Monday, July 4. Meanwhile, in a significant setback, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA could defend only 99 votes.

After winning the floor test, Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said, “Our CM Eknath Shinde has won the trust vote; I congratulate him. I thank all the MLAs who supported us.”

“I also want to thank the opposition MLAs who refused from voting to guarantee we have a sweeping majority,” deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis added.

Justifiably, Maharashtra’s newly commissioned Deputy CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had yesterday expressed confidence that the Shinde government will establish its majority. “The youngest speaker candidate won the speaker election with 164 votes today as 2 MLAs couldn’t come due to health issues. We would prove our majority with 166 votes during the vote of confidence,” he had said.

The voting for the floor test was held via a head count. During the floor test, the Speaker also allowed the demand of opposition for a division of votes. To prove its unhinged majority, the Eknath Shinde government had to get past the halfway magic mark of 144 votes in the Assembly.

The test of strength came a day after BJP’s Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker with a majority of 164 votes in the House.

As per the reports, Uddhav Thackeray’s MLAs Santosh Bangar and Shyamsundar Shinde also joined the Eknath Shinde camp just minutes before the Maharashtra trust vote.

It may be recollected how the Shiv Sena biggie Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 29, minutes after the Supreme Court of India rejected to intermediate with the Maharashtra Governor’s directive for a trust vote. The Governor had asked Uddhav Thackeray-led SS-NCP-Cong ruling alliance to prove their majority in Assembly on June 30, with voting at 5 pm.

The CM had then addressed the public through a live video on Facebook and announced that he was resigning. Along with the post of CM, he had also left as an MLC.

Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena faced a coup on 21st June 2022 when Eknath Shinde and 39 other Shiv Sena MLAs revolted against the Maha Vikas AGhadi alliance in the state and asked to get back into a coalition with their former partner BJP.

In a twister, Shiv Sena had broken the pre-poll alliance with BJP and joined hands with NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra after the 2019 assembly elections. Eknath Shinde and other rebels have stressed that they took the stand for Hindutva philosophy that Shiv Sena was moving away from, especially after forming a coalition government with NCP and Congress.