Eknath Shinde's government will take the test of majority tomorrow
The election for the Maharashtra Speaker's post is being considered a semi-final ahead of the vote tomorrow, when the Eknath Shinde goverment would need to prove its majorityHere is what today's voting result revealed
BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected Speaker with 164 votes. The Opposition's candidate, Rajan Salvi, got 107 votes.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena has moved Supreme Court for suspension of 16 MLAs from the Shinde camp. In that case, the majority mark would come down to 137. With 16 less votes, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government will have 148 votes past the majority mark.
In fact, even If all 39 rebel MLAs are disqualified, the ruling alliance would be past the magic number, today's voting shows. Suspension of 39 MLAs would bring the majority mark down to 125. Mr Narwekar got 164 votes. With 39 less, the ruling alliance would still be home.
This implies that the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction does not have the numbers to win the test of strength on the House floor.
MLAs of Samajwadi Party and AIMIM did not vote. Even if they vote tomorrow, Team Uddhav Thackeray won't have the numbers to win the vote.
