The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government faces a floor test today on the second day of the special session of state Assembly. He faced the first test on Sunday and won big after after BJP’s Rahul Narvekar was elected as the Speaker during the special two-day session. The trust vote, however, is expected to be a formality, owing to the numbers in favour of the Shinde-BJP alliance.   

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Narvekar polled 164 votes in the 288-member House to defeat Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes. Narvekar is the youngest ever Assembly Speaker in the country. 

As many as 50 MLAs who support Shinde, including 39 rebel legislators of the Shiv Sena, on Saturday evening flew to Mumbai from Goa by a chartered flight. Shinde, who had flown to Goa in the morning, accompanied them back.

Shinde has the support of 10 legislators of smaller parties and independents and 106 MLAs of the BJP in the 288-member House where the majority mark is 144. 

Following is the party position in the Assembly: Shiv Sena — 55, NCP — 53, Congress — 44, BJP — 106, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi — 3, Samajwadi Party — 2, AIMIM — 2, Prahar Janshakti Party — 2, MNS — 1, CPI (M) — 1, PWP — 1, Swambhimani Paksha — 1, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha — 1, Jansurajya Shakti Party — 1, Krantikari Shetkari Party — 1, and Independents — 13.

Two NCP members - Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal - have tested COVID-19 positive, while two other party legislators - Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik - are currently in jail.

Last month, Eknath Shinde launched a rebellion against the party. Majority of MLAs sided with him, which led to the collapse of the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray. Eknath Shinde was last Thursday sworn in as the 20th chief minister of Maharashtra, while BJP stalwart Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the deputy CM.

Before the session commenced, the Shinde faction sealed the legislative party office in the Vidhan Bhavan. A paper was stuck with a plastic tape on the closed doors of the Sena legislative party office, with a message in Marathi saying, “The office is closed as per instructions of the Shiv Sena legislative party. 

It was Shiv Sena versus Shiv Sena as the battle between the two factions intensified. Both the sides issued separate whips to MLAs to vote in favour of their candidates during the election. The Shinde group voted in favour of Narvekar as the speaker, while 16 MLAs from the Thackeray camp voted against him.