Voting for single-phase Maharashtra assembly election begins
Voting began at 7 am on Wednesday for the single-phase Maharashtra assembly elections and will conclude at 6 pm. Polling is taking place across 288 assembly constituencies.
After one month’s suspense and twists and turns which led to the formation of the Uddhav Thackeray headed Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, which will face floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly today.
The floor test will be held after the House meets at 2 pm, a Vidhan Bhavan official told news agency PTI.
According to the official, the government is expected to have a smooth sailing in the floor test.
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A two-day sitting of the Assembly will begin from today.
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 CM 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.
The Shiv Sena president Thackeray was sworn-in as the chief minister on Thursday after unanimously chosen by all the three parties -Sena, NCP and Congress as the one for CMs post. On Thursday evening he took oath at Shivaji Park, Mumbai 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.
(With PTI inputs)
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