Maharashtra: MLAs of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena take pledge, say 'will not get lured'

In a show of strength, the MLAs of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena on Monday pledged jointly in the presence of their senior party leaders at a Mumbai hotel, saying that they would not get "lured" and "will not do anything which will benefit BJP".

"I swear that under the leadership of Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and Sonia Gandhi, I will be honest with my party. I won't get lured by anything. I will not do anything which will benefit BJP," all the MLAs present in the Hotel Grand Hyatt said while taking the pledge.

This comes at a time when Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena have lodged their MLAs in respective hotels to keep their flock intact and to prevents any alleged attempts of 'poaching' or 'horse-trading'. However, the three parties have pooled their MLAs at Hotel Grand Hyatt where NCP MLAs are already staying, in a bid to show their strength.

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar that the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena have the majority and will form the government in Maharashtra. He was addressing the MLAs of all the three parties who were assembled at the Hotel Grand Hyatt in a show of strength.

"We will work in the interest of people and we have the majority and we will form the government," said Sharad Pawar.

He continued, "There will not be any problem in proving our majority. The one who is suspended from the party cannot give any orders. On the day of the floor test, I will bring more than 162 MLAs. This is not Goa, this is Maharashtra."

Earlier in the day, NCP legislative party leader Jayant Patil along with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan and others visited Raj Bhawan and gave a letter showing the strength of 162 MLAs to the officials at Raj Bhavan.

After which Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut invited Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to "come and watch" the show of strength of the three parties.

The Supreme Court earlier today reserved the order on a joint petition filed by Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP against the decision of Koshyari to invite BJP to form government in the state.

The petitions were filed after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath for the second consecutive term as the state Chief Minister, with NCP's Ajit Pawar as his Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday morning. This came when deliberations among Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on the government formation had reached the final stage.

The order on whether the floor test will be conducted for proving the majority of the BJP-led Fadnavis government is expected to be pronounced at 10:30 am tomorrow.

A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan, and Sanjiv Khanna today heard the arguments put forth by counsels appearing for Governor, Maharashtra BJP and other parties.