Maharashtra trust vote: Floor test for Devendra Fadnavis, ‘support us or abstain’ is BJP’s appeal

Mumbai: As the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party government is poised for the trust vote in Maharashtra, the party’s gameplan is to convince political parties to either support them in the state Assembly or abstain from voting. Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that the party would welcome the support of all parties, with the exception of Congress.

Meanwhile, all eyes will be on the Nationalist Congress Party over its stand on the trust vote motion. The party called a meeting of its MLAs in the evening and decided not to take any step against the minority government of the BJP. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also addressed a meeting of all the Sena legislators.

To win the trust vote motion that will be decided by an open ballot, BJP needs 145 votes if all the 288 members of the House remain present. However, if 41 MLAs (the full strength of the NCP) abstain from voting, BJP will need just 119 members to prove its majority in the House, said an official from state legislature.

According to highly-placed sources in the BJP, the gameplan of the party is working. Many political parties have agreed to abstain from voting, including NCP, Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM).

Read: Maharashtra scene set for election of Assembly speaker post today

“Going by the calculations, the tally of the BJP, with the help of seven independents and three members from the Hitendra Thakur-led Vasai Vikas Aghadi (VVA) will reach 132 votes. We have got support from another eight-member group led by PWP,” said a senior BJP leader requesting anonymity.

He claimed that the PWP had formed a group of 8 legislators, comprising Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), CPI (M), Samajwadi Party and two others, to support the BJP government .

Ganpatrao Deshmukh senior PWP MLA confirmed that they would abstain from voting on the trust vote motion. “We have decided to abstain at the time of voting. However, I can’t speak about others,” he said, when asked about the group of eight MLAs. Baliram Siraskar, MLA of BBM from Balapur Assembly constituency of Akola district said that he is supporting the BJP government for the cause of Vidarbha statehood.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has already indicated that they would abstain from voting in order to help the BJP government from collapsing in a few months.

Clearing the party’s stand on trust vote, Nawab Malik NCP spokesperson said, “We will not take any step to topple the government.” He however, added that all the MLAs have been asked to be present in the morning at the NCP office of Vidhan Bhavan to decide its strategy on the Speaker’s election.

Read: Congress candidate for Assembly speaker post calls on NCP for support

Significantly, even a day after the Shiv Sena occupied the Opposition benches in the special session in Maharashtra, Mr Rudy said that he still hoped that the party would “turn around”. When asked about whether Sena’s Anant Geete would resign from the Cabinet, Mr Rudy said that he was not aware of any resignation adding, “Even prior to elections, we wanted to take Shiv Sena along and post-elections also, wanted it to be part of the government.”

Mr Rudy also confirmed that NCP had already offered unconditional support but that did not imply that they would be running the show. “Those who want to come forward for the development of Maharashtra should come. We want to take along all those who want to come forward for the development of Maharashtra,” he said.