Sena meets Governor on trust vote, lodges protest

The Shiv Sena Thursday submitted a memorandum to Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao highlighting alleged irregularities and violation of norms by the BJP to win the vote of confidence in the assembly.

A delegation led by Leader of Opposition Eknath Shinde and others called on Rao Thursday evening to lodge their protest and point out the alleged violations whereby Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' government secured the trust vote.

The delegation explained the manner in which assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde conducted the proceedings, changing the business agenda and did not permit the opposition to have its say on the demand for a poll.

Accordingly, the delegation said that it is not clear whether the minority BJP government with the support of only 122 legislators actually enjoys the backing of 145 MLAs, which is required for a simple majority.

Questioning the BJP government's 'constitutional legitimacy', the Congress announced Thursday that it was exploring legal options on the controversial confidence vote and will also take a delegation to meet Governor Rao here Friday.

Claiming that the BJP government Wednesday won the confidence vote by a voice vote, the Congress said it had failed to prove its majority.

"This government has no constitutional legitimacy. As the process of voice vote remains incomplete, the governor must ask the BJP to prove its majority in the house," Congress Rajya Sabha member and spokesperson Bhalchandra Mungekar said.

He alleged that the Speaker did not ask all those who were against the motion of vote of confidence so the process of voice vote remained incomplete.

"As it is a minority government, how many spoke in support and how many are against has not been registered in the proceedings. When the process itself was incomplete, how can they say that the division of votes (polling) was delayed," Mungekar questioned, when asked about the government's contention that the demand for division of votes came late.

Referring to the developments, he said the BJP did not want to expose the Nationalist Congress Party during the trust vote.

"The BJP is ashamed that it took NCP's help for the confidence vote and the NCP is ashamed of making public its support to BJP," he said