MUMBAI : As many as 169 MLAs of Maha Vikas Agadi today voted in favour of motion of confidence, while zero against, four abstained and 105 BJP MLAs walked out during voting.
BJP leader and former CM Devendra Fadnavis today said that they will submit a letter to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari asking him to suspend the proceedings of the House.
Pro tem speaker Dilip Walse Patil rejected Fadnavis’ claim of an ‘illegal session’, saying its is being held as per governor’s directions. The Uddhav Thackeray-led government, meanwhile, has cleared the face floor test, despite four MLAs abstaining and BJP legislators walking out of the House.
BJP’s Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil today said that the party would approach Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari over Maha Vikas Agadi’s move to change protem speaker. Terming it ‘legally wrong’. “We are filing petition with the governor, and might also approach the apex court,” he added.
Altogether 169 MLAs voted in favour of the motion of confidence, moved by former chief minister Ashok Chavan and seconded by senior NCP and Sena members.
The floor test began with high drama as the BJP members, led by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, walked out just before voting. The BJP is protesting against the selection of Nationalist Congress Party’s Dilip Walse Patil as temporary speaker.
Mr Patil had replaced the BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar as pro-tem speaker and a permanent Speaker will be elected on Sunday. “There was some pressure before coming to the House as I did not have the experience of working in the House but only on the ground.

I feel fortunate to be here,” Mr Thackeray said after winning the trust vote. Uddhav Thackeray, 59, heads an alliance of the Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, also called Maha Vikas Aghadi. The alliance won with 169 votes, well above the half-way mark of 145 in the 288-member assembly.
The three parties together have 154 MLAs. Some Independents and others like Bahujan Vikas Aghadi too backed the Uddhav Thackeray-led alliance. Four MLAs abstained from voting, the temporary Speaker said.
Mr Fadnavis alleged that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other ministers were sworn-in in an “illegal” way. Pro-tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil, said, “You are raising an issue which is of out of the house.”
The party has nominated MLA Kisan S Kathore as its candidate for Sunday’s Speaker’s election against the Congress MLA Nana Patolem, the nominee of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance.
“You (the BJP) feel stung when we took names of Chhatrapati Shivaji (while taking oath). I will take the name again and again. Those who don’t take names of their parents, have no right to live,” he said.
It is not Maharashtra’s culture when you think taking name of Chhatrapati Shivaji and parents is a crime,” Uddhav Thackeray said, taking on the opposition. The Sena chief was the eighth person to take oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister without being an MLA.
(Bureau Report with Agency Inputs ).

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