Sharad Pawar, Uddhav meet after SC rules for floor test in Maharashtra

Barely an hour after the Supreme Court ordered a floor test, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar met in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Apart from the two party chiefs, NCP leaders Praful Patel, Jayanth Patil Supriya Sule, Nawab Malik, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Jitendra Awhad and Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena also met at the Sofitel hotel here.

On a joint petition of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena, the Supreme Court has ordered that a floor test be conducted in Maharasthra Assembly on Wednesday, observing that a delay in the majority test could lead to horse-trading.

The floor test will be conducted before 5 pm through an open ballot and the proceedings will be telecast live to determine whether the BJP-led government has the requisite numbers in the House, the court has said.

The three parties had moved the Supreme Court after BJP's Devendra Fadanvis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively early on Saturday morning.

On Monday, Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP submitted a letter of MLAs at Raj Bhavan saying the present dispensation does not have numbers and staked claim to form the government.

The BJP had 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.