Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra state unit president Chandrashekhar Bawankule has now said that 20-25 MLAs will join the BJP, if the oppoisition’s motion against the Assembly Speaker is tabled. Speaking to reporters, Bawankule said that the no-confidence motion against the House Speaker will ensure that the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government will manage more than 184 seats in the 288-seater Maharashtra Assembly. The Shinde-Fadnavis government had proved its majority in the House with 164 MLAs in July.
On the final day of the winter session of Maharashtra Assembly, the opposition MLAs tabled the no-confidence motion against Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar after the Opposition members were not allowed to speak in the House by the Speaker.
No-confidence motion against Maha Speaker: Ajit Pawar says he was unaware
The members of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi claimed that the no-confidence motion against Narvekar was signed by 39 MLAs. The letter was alsso handed over to the Legislative Secretary Rajendra Bhagwat by MLAs Sunil Kedar, Sunil Prabhu, Suresh Varpudkar and Anil Patil. Downplaying the move by the opposition MLAs, Bawankule said that the stand taken by the opposition shows its ‘double-standards’.
Interestingly, however, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar said that he was not aware of the no-confidence motion. He added that he would have signed the no-confidence motion had he known about it.
“I am not aware of a no-confidence motion against the speaker. Today, at 9 am I went to the assembly and now I am coming out at 12 pm. As far as my knowledge is concerned, the no-confidence motion against the speaker can’t be brought till one year. If I was aware of this motion, then my sign would have been there. I have no information about this,” Pawar said, news agency ANI reported.
