Hastily conducting the trust vote has cost Maharashtra speaker Haribhau Bagade his credibility in the eyes of political observers.
Mumbai university politics professor Pawar said, "Why was the trust vote passed in such a hurry? It seems that with the directions of the Fadnavis government, the speaker had already made up his mind that he would declare the vote of confidence passed within seconds."
Experts feel that Bagade should not have taken the vote of confidence through the hastily-conducted voice vote method, but instead should have used the division of votes method, commonly known as the ballot method, which is methodical and iron-cast.
The fact that Bagade then hastened to declare the voice vote as won by the BJP, leaving room for ambiguity on who actually supported the BJP, struck political observers as being unethical and unbecoming of the post.
Pawar said, "The speaker has got discretionary power in the assembly, but the question is whether he used his discretion or not on Wednesday."
Political analyst Prakash Bal Joshi said, "The speaker used his authority to change the agenda of the day. He took a confidence vote before announcing the leader of opposition, which led to the whole controversy. It would have been advantageous for the BJP to go in for the division of votes (ballot method) instead of the voice vote that created a doubt about the entire proceedings."
1995 trust vote: similar circumstances, but no controversy
This is not the first time that a minority government has won the vote of confidence motion through a voice vote in the state assembly. In 1995, the Sena-BJP government won the trust vote in almost similar circumstances through a voice vote.
In the 1995 assembly elections, the BJP won 65 seats and the Sena 73; their tally fell short by seven, of the 145 needed to win the trust vote in the assembly of 288.
"However, things were little different then. Out of 45 independents who had won then, 17 extended their support to the Sena-BJP government by writing a letter to the governor a day before the trust vote. The voice vote in 1995 was hence ethical and without any ambiguity," said Pawar.
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