Shinde's vote of confidence on Monday, 170 claims

- The Shinde camp is behind the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government that lasted for two and a half years.

Mumbai, Ta. 02 July 2022, Saturday

New Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will face a floor test on July 4. The Shinde government will prove its majority in this floor test. "We have 170 MLAs and the number is increasing," Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Friday. "We have an innate majority in the legislature," he said. In the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly, the BJP has 106 MLAs and Shinde claims he has the support of 50 MLAs. It includes 39 Shiv Sena and the rest of the independent MLAs.

Rebel MLAs from CM Shinde's group are still in Goa. All these will reach Mumbai on Saturday. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked Shinde to prove his majority in the House on July 4. On Friday, BJP leader Rahul Narvekar nominated himself for the post of Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. The special session of the Legislative Assembly is starting from July 3.

Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister on Thursday. The Shinde camp is behind the collapse of the 2.5-year-old Uddhav Thackeray-led government. Shinde had revolted against his own party by forming a Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with NCP and Congress along with 39 Shiv Sena MLAs.

The rebel MLAs wanted Shiv Sena chief Thackeray to sever ties with the parties he opposed. He said the Shiv Sena's natural alliance is with the BJP and it should go back. Soon after the mutiny against Thackeray, the rebel MLAs left Maharashtra and moved to Guwahati (Assam) in BJP-ruled Gujarat.

The rebel MLAs agreed to return to Mumbai after the governor asked Thackeray to prove his majority in the assembly but before that he reached Goa where he is still staying. Today, Chief Minister Shinde said the MLAs would return to Mumbai on Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had lashed out at Shinde, saying he had hit him in the back. The Shiv Sena president also said that if the BJP had agreed to the promise given to him in 2019, there would have been no MVA.