The Shiv Sena’sUddhav Thackeray faction has petitioned the Supreme Court once more, this time to challenge the Maharashtra Governor’s decision to invite rebel leader Eknath Shinde to form the government.
On June 30, Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari met with Shinde and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis at Raj Bhavan, during which the two submitted letters of support from MLAs.
The Maharashtra assembly proceedings on July 3-4, during which the Shinde-BJP coalition first appointed a new Speaker and then held a floor test in the House, have also been challenged by Team Uddhav.
The BJP’s Rahul Narvekar was elected Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on Sunday. He defeated Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who was supported by Uddhav Thackeray.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde easily won a crucial confidence vote in the state assembly on Monday, cementing his grip on power five days after taking office with BJP support following a Shiv Sena revolt.
Shinde (58) launched a rebellion against the Shiv Sena leadership last month, gaining the support of nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, enough to avoid the provisions of the anti-defection law, resulting in the collapse of the two-and-a-half-year-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Shinde, a Shiv Sena MLA from Thane, was sworn in as chief minister on June 30, just one day after Thackeray resigned. Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP was sworn in as deputy chief minister.
In a separate petition filed last month by Uddhav Thackeray, the Supreme Court postponed the disqualification proceedings against rebel Shiv Sena MLAs before the Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly until July 11, and also sought responses from the state government and others on their petitions questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.