Shiv Sena rebels shall leave Guwahati for Goa today. 71 rooms at the Resort & Convention Centre are purportedly reserved for the rebel camp.
Mumbai: According to sources, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena rebels shall leave Guwahati for Goa today in reaction to Uddhav Thackeray’s order to create a majority at tomorrow’s floor test. There are reportedly 71 rooms booked at the Taj Resort & Convention Centre for the rebel camp. According to sources, private planes should arrive in Goa about 4:30 pm.
There are now buses inside the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati, where the rebel camp has been camping for the past week, and security has been increased amid reports that the dissident MLAs are checking out. They will check out of the 5 resorts by 12–12:30 pm, as per sources, and may travel from the coastal state in the early evening.
Goa will be an easy layover for the MLAs who should turn up for the exceptional Maharashtra assembly session early tomorrow as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray faces a critical floor test to prove his majority as it is a BJP-ruled state and is closer to Mumbai.
Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of Maharashtra, has been entrusted with proving a majority tomorrow. A special session shall start at 11 a.m., per a letter from the governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, to the assembly secretary, Rajendra Bhagwat.
Sunil Prabhu, the chief whip for the Shiv Sena, filed a motion with the Supreme Court disputing the Maharashtra Governor’s mandate to Uddhav Thackeray hours after it was given. The senior attorney defending Uddhav Thackeray in the lawsuit, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, is expected to bring up the plea in the top court at 10:30 AM.
The Thackeray camp’s petition to the Governor’s ruling will be heard this morning by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, who allowed the dissident camp protection from their expulsion notices from the Deputy Speaker until July 12.
A week after over 40 MLAs revolted against Mr. Thackeray, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said this morning that the party will move the Supreme Court to contest the necessity to establish a majority.
“How can a floor test be asked for when the disqualification of 16 MLA has been deferred by the Supreme Court till 11th July? How can these MLAs participate in the floor test till their disqualification status is not decided and the other matters for which notice sent is sub judice?” Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had tweeted. “This would be contempt of court proceedings if a floor test were conducted despite the matter not getting a final hearing in the SC [Supreme Court],” she said.
The Governor stated that the majority test will be televised live and that the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat would use a separate department to record the events on camera. Mr. Koshyari pointed out that, “In order to ensure free and fair voting, it shall be conducted by asking members to rise in their seats for the purpose of counting votes…” Mr Koshyari said.
Nearly 50 MLAs, 40 of whom are Shiv Sena supporters, are said to support Mr. Shinde. The assembly’s 287 members already have 144 votes, which is the majority. There are 152 MLAs in the Shiv Sena, Congress, and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combination, which is in power. The approximately 40 rogue MLAs will cause the state legislature to become a minority.
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