Mumbai:The 13-day-old BJP government headed by Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday won the confidence motion in Maharashtra Assembly by a voice vote, amid protests by former ally Shiv Sena.
As the motion seeking vote of confidence in the BJP government moved by MLA Ashish Shelar was passed in the House where the ruling party is in minority, Shiv Sena MLAs stormed the Well seeking division of votes.
“The motion has been passed,” Speaker Haribhau Bagade announced in the din. Agitated members of Shiv Sena, which had earlier said that it will oppose the trust vote and and had demanded that its leader Eknath Shinde be accorded the status of Leader of Opposition, shouted slogans.
Earlier in the day, Bagde was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Maha-rashtra Assembly after Congress and Shiv Sena withdrew their candidates from the race.
The Speaker had said he would take up the issue of Sena’s demand for LoP’s post after the trust vote as Congress had also staked claim and he would have to study the legal implications.
Congress had deman-ded LoP’s post on the ground that Sena continued to be a constituent of BJP-led NDA. After Sena members objected to the passing of the trust motion by a voice vote and sought division, Bagde adjourned the House.
When proceed-ings resumed, the Speaker announced appoi-ntment of Shinde as Leader of Oppo-sition in the House.
Sena MLAs led by Shinde registered protest over the confidence motion being passed by voice vote and said it amounted to “strangling democracy”.
“The House should be run as per rules and the Constitution should not be trampled upon. The new government is strangulating democracy.
We sought division but the trust vote was passed by voice vote,” Shinde said. Rejecting his contention, the Speaker said, “The issue is over. The trust vote has been passed.”
Chief Minister Fadnavis joined issue with Shinde, saying, “Although there is the word opposition in your design-ation, the expecta-tion is that you should not oppose each and every issue and support the government’s pro-people decisions.”(PTI)
