Maharashtra Floor Test: Eknath Shinde to face trust vote today | 10 Points

Mumbai, July 04: The four-day-old Eknath Shinde-led government will face the floor test on Monday during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly which began on Sunday. The trust vote will be held in the Assembly, the last day of the special two-day session of the House.

Here are ten points on the new Maharashtra government and assembly session:

1. On June 3, the two-day Assembly session was convened to elect the new Speaker and the floor test is slated to be held today. Rahul Narvekar from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected Speaker after he garnered 164 votes.
2. Hours after election, assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar has reinstated Eknath Shinde as Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary. It has also sparked buzz as in the past, he had links to the NCP and the Congress. Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.
3. The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction comprising 16 MLAs who will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote. If these 16 MLAs refuse to follow the whip, they face disqualification.
4. Today's trust vote doesn't seem to be a big challenge for the new combine with Shinde having support of over 50 MLAs and 106 MLAs with the BJP in the 288-member house. In his first address in the assembly session, Shinde said that no MLA was forced to switch sides in an attack on Uddhav Thackeray.
5. On Sunday, the Shiv Sena factions led by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray separately claimed that they had sealed the Sena legislative party office in the Vidhan Bhavan.
6. "Some reports are claiming that the keys of the Shiv Sena legislative party office are with Eknath Shinde. These reports are false. We will open the office tomorrow," Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and MP Arvind Sawant was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
7. Shidne and Devendra Fadnavis held another meeting on Sunday night before the trust vote. This was the second straight evening that lawmakers of the ruling coalition met after the return of rebel lawmakers from Goa.
8. Meanwhile, a move to reverse the former MVA government's decision on Aarey forest, often called as Mumbai's green luing, has prompted backlash from environmentalists.
9. At present, the BJP has 106 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly and Shinde is leading 39 rebel Shiv Sena legislators and some Independents. After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
10. Following is the party position in the Assembly: Shiv Sena 55, NCP 53, Congress 44, BJP 106, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi 3, Samajwadi Party 2, AIMIM 2, Prahar Janshakti Party 2, MNS 1, CPI (M) 1, PWP 1, Swambhimani Paksha 1, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha 1, Jansurajya Shakti Party 1, Krantikari Shetkari Party 1, and Independents 13. There is a vacancy due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke last month. Two NCP members - Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal - have tested COVID-19 positive, while two other party legislators - Anil Deshmukh and Nawab