Cong-NCP-Sena submit letter at Raj Bhavan, claims present govt doesn't have numbers

Members of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on Monday submitted a letter at Raj Bhavan here staking claim to form the government in Maharashtra, saying the present dispensation does not have the required number to prove its majority in the floor test.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court reserved its order in the petition filed jointly by Shiv Sena, Congress, and the NCP against the government formation in Maharashtra with Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister. A bench comprising of Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna will pass the order on Tuesday at 10.30 am.

The apex court bench had on Sunday asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to produce relevant documents including Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's letter inviting BJP to form the government and letter of support of MLAs.

The petitioners had filed a petition against the decision of the Governor's inviting Fadnavis to form the government in the state.

At a time when deliberations among Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on the formation of a non-BJP government in the state had seemingly reached a final stage, the BJP formed the government in a surprise development on Saturday morning when Fadnavis took oath for the second time as the Chief Minister, while Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as his deputy.

Meanwhile, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi led the party's protest in Parliament premises over the Maharashtra government formation issue.

The Congress members held banners which said- 'Stop Murder of Democracy'.

Later when the House proceedings began, opposition leaders raised slogans of 'Samvidhan ki hatya bandh karo, bandh karo' (Stop the murder of Constitution) during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha. There was also sloganeering in Rajya Sabha over the Maharashtra issue.

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been adjourned till 2 pm.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly in last month's assembly polls followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. Although BJP and Shiv Sena got the mandate to form the government, the two parties parted ways over power-sharing.