Uddhav Thackeray-led govt to face floor test on Saturday

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance will face floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on Saturday.

The floor test will be held after the House meets at 2 pm, a Vidhan Bhavan official told PTI.

The government is expected to have a smooth sailing in the floor test, the official said.

A two-day sitting of the Assembly will begin Saturday.

The trust vote will be taken up on day one, preceded by the introduction of the new ministers in the House.

On Sunday, the Assembly Speaker's election will be held, followed by tabling of motion of thanks on the governor's address in the House.

The new Speaker will then announce the name of the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

Governor B S Koshyari has asked Thackeray to prove majority by December 3.

The ruling combine has claimed support of at least 162 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress formed the government after the Thackeray-led party fell out with its pre-poll ally BJP over sharing the chief ministerial post.

The BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 105 seats. The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress won 56, 54 and 44 seats respectively in the October 21 polls.

NCP MLA Dilip Walse Patil was on Friday appointed as the pro tem speaker of the Assembly. He replaced BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar, who was earlier this week appointed to the post.

Walse Patil is a former speaker of the Assembly.

Thackeray, who is also the Shiv Sena president, was sworn-in as the chief minister on Thursday evening and hours later, presided over his government's first cabinet meeting.

Besides Thackeray, six other ministers - two each from the Sena, the Congress and the NCP - also took oath.