Shinde won the trust vote with an impressive majority of 164-99. During the floor test, Opposition MLAs shouted ‘ED, ED’ in chorus when rebel lawmakers from Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena supported Eknath Shinde
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. Twitter/@Dev_Fadnavis
After Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government’s floor test in the House on Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed the Assembly and got into some wordplays using Eknath Shinde and his own name to counter the charge of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that was used to effect the change of power in the state.
“People taunt that it’s an ED government. Yes, it is an ED government of Eknath-Devendra,” Fadnavis told the lawmakers during a special session of Maharashtra Assembly today.
He also asserted that there will never be a tussle for power in the new Maharashtra government, “we will continue cooperating”.
Shinde won the trust vote with an impressive majority of 164-99. During the floor test, opposition MLAs shouted “ED, ED” in chorus when rebel lawmakers from Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena supported Eknath Shinde.
The chant grew louder when a Thackeray camp MLA Santosh Bangar supported Shinde in the trust vote. Notably, in a video posted earlier on Twitter, Bangar was seen weeping in support of Uddhav Thackeray and today he crossed over to Shinde’s side.
Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote has been carried by a majority vote. Following the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Maharashtra Assembly is reduced to 287, therefore, the majority mark is 144.
For the unversed, Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister on 30 June, while BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.
Addressing the Maharashtra Assembly, the Maharashtra deputy CM said that he was ridiculed earlier when he had said that he would come back.
“I had once said that I will come back. But when I said that, several people mocked me. I have come back today and brought him (Eknath Shinde) along with me. I won’t take revenge on people who mocked me. I will forgive them, everything isn’t taken to heart in politics,” Fadnavis said.
It can be recalled that Fadnavis’ Mi punha yein (I will come back) remark during the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election campaign was mocked by political rivals.
Fadnavis served as Maharashtra chief minister for a full five-year term from 2014 to 2019. Following the Assembly polls in 2019, Shiv Sena snapped ties with the BJP over the Chief Minister post.
“Our alliance (Shiv Sena and BJP) had received the mandate (in 2019), but we were deliberately taken away from the majority. But with Eknath Shinde, we have once again formed our government with Shiv Sena. A true Shivsainik has been made the Chief Minister. I became the Deputy CM as per my party’s command,” Fadnavis said in Maharashtra Assembly today.
“I would have even sat at home had the party told me – the same party that made me a chief minister,” he said.
Hitting out at former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said, “In politics, everyone should be prepared to listen to adversary’s voices. We have seen that people were jailed for making statements and posting on social media. We should be prepared for people speaking against us. We should respond to criticism but in a proper way.”
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.