Cong rubbishes breakaway reports; claims MVA intact

Mumbai, July 04: Maharashtra Congress-in-charge HK Patil on Monday refuted reports of Congress pulling out of Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in the state.

An indication of the Congress's disgruntlement with NCP and Shiv Sena was reflected during the vote of confidence on Monday when multiple party MLAs including Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Zeeshan Siddiqui and Dheeraj Deshmukh were absent.

Three legislators abstained from voting, while 21 legislators, were absent during the trust vote.

During the floor test, eleven Congress MLAs, Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Dheeraj Deshmukh, Praniti Shinde, Jitesh Antapurkar, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Raju Awale, Mohan Hambarde, Kunal Patil, Madhavrao Jawalgaonkar and Shirish Chaudhary were absent during the floor test.

Chavan and Wadettiwar came late and were unable to enter the House at the time of the vote.

"I saw some reports stating Congress is likely to pull out of the MVA alliance in Maharashtra. It is false. Congress has neither discussed this nor decided on anything. The rumours are far away from the truth. MVA alliance is stable," HK Patil told reporters.

HK Patil blamed the BJP for the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra.

"The way BJP has done a new experiment to break the party (Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra is an example of the BJP's 'Operation lotus'. Congress is with MVA, and the 3-party alliance is intact. Today, we've all voted for the no-confidence motion," he added.

"To me, it appears that this govt (Eknath Shinde govt) won't last long... This govt won't be able to function... there are many confusions & contradictions; Shiv Sena MLAs are restless... the way they've travelled so much shows they're not united," he further said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the crucial floor test in the state Assembly on the last day of the two-day special session of the House. In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.