Maha crisis: Fadnavis meets Governor, seeks direction to CM to prove majority

Mumbai, Jun 28: Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday night met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and requested him to ask Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray government to prove its majority in the assembly.

"We've given a letter to Maharashtra Governor and told him that the 39 Shiv Sena MLAs are saying that they don't want to be with NCP and Cong government which shows the MVA govt has lost the majority. We've requested Governor to direct Chief Minister to immediately prove his majority through Floor test," ANI quoted Devendra Fadnavis as saying.

Before meeting the governor around 10 pm, Fadnavis met top BJP leaders in Delhi earlier in the day. According to sources, before Fadnavis landed at the Raj Bhavan here, eight Independent MLAs, who were earlier associated with the Shiv Sena, sent emails from Guwahati -- where the rebel group headed by Shinde is camping -- seeking floor test at the earliest claiming that Thackeray government has lost its majority.

The revolt in the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, has pushed the three-party ruling coalition, which also consists of the NCP and the Congress, into a deep crisis. In a relief to rebel Shiv Sena lawmakers, the Supreme Court on Monday kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought responses to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.

The current political crisis is triggered after MLA Eknath Shinde flew to Surat with some MLAs before shifting to Guwahati. He has claimed to have 40 MLAs with him, thus achieving the two-thirds majority in the Shiv Sena.

In the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the mid-way mark is 144. However, the current strength is 287 following the demise of one Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke of Mumbai.