BJP gears up for floor test, backs rebel MLAs as real Shiv Sena

On a day the Supreme Court granted interim relief to the Eknath Shinde-led rebel camp from the disqualification proceedings, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for the first time since the political crisis broke out in Maharashtra, went into a huddle to take stock of the situation.

The BJP is preparing for a floor test, a senior party leader told HT after a core committee meeting at Sagar, official residence of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in Malabar Hill, on Monday. He said the party was expecting the floor test to take place before the next apex court hearing on July 11.

“The apex court has not stopped a floor test from happening even though such a request was made. It has, however, stayed the disqualification process. The Governor has the constitutional authority to ask the government to prove its majority following a letter from the Shinde group or even any other smaller party or Independents. We can see it happening before the next hearing. In such an eventuality, the MVA government will fall,’’ the BJP leader said.

He further said that the issue of disqualification of MLAs or any other such dispute would then be resolved by the next speaker of the House.

While the BJP is not likely to move a no-confidence motion against the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi before the Governor, it is counting on the Shinde group or in a more unlikely option, the Independents to take such a step. The party has asked all its MLAs to stay ready to come to Mumbai at short notice indicating that a special session of the state legislature is likely.

Senior leader and former minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the BJP was still in a “wait and watch mode” and had not taken any decision on government formation. “We discussed the apex court verdict, Shinde’s speech as well as the ongoing political situation but we have not taken any decision. Currently, we do not have any such proposal from Shinde.’’

Mungantiwar came out strongly in support of the rebel MLAs legitimising them as the real Sena MLAs and their leader Shinde as the real leader of the Sena legislative party in the assembly.

“We can see that two-thirds of the MLAs are with Shinde; so how can he be called a rebel? He is the real leader of the Sena legislative party in the assembly. The MLAs supporting him are also the real Sena MLAs; they are 24-carat gold; the real rebel MLAs will be decided in the future. Even in terms of ideology, Shinde is carrying forward the real Hindutva ideology of Sena,’’ Mungantiwar added.

Meanwhile, as the SC extended the time granted by deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal to the dissident MLAs, Sena functionaries said they had expected relief for the rebel group.

Sena, however, argued in the court that the “long rope” of extension should not be used for any “unlawful” move to pull down the state government in the next two weeks.

Sena is worried that the BJP or the rebel faction could use the 14 days to show that the government has lost its majority. “After arguments from the other side, we offered to give two days’ extension to the deadline of the deputy speaker, but the court allowed them a longer extension. A long rope has been given but any unlawful move in the meantime must be stopped by the court. The court has assured us that if such things happen, we can immediately approach the court as a petitioner,” Sena MP Anil Desai said.

Reacting to the apex court order, tourism minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said the party would study it. Thackeray continued to take a combative stance against the Shinde faction saying they should not be called ‘rebels’. He expressed confidence in winning a trust vote as 15-20 MLAs in the Shinde camp were in touch with the Sena leadership.

“We are confident of victory. Those who have fled will never win. We are ready for a floor test, but are they? Some of them are in touch with us and tell us that they want to come back. My challenge to them is to look us in the eye and say what we did wrong,” he said.

“This is not politics; it has become a circus now. They are calling themselves rebels, but they have fled from here. If they wanted to rebel, they would have stayed here and resigned [as legislators],” Thackeray said.