Maharashtra floor test: Eknath Shinde wins trust vote in State Assembly by 164-99 margin

On the last day of the House’s two-day special session, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the floor test on July 4. The motion of confidence was supported by 164 MLAs in the 288-member House, while it was opposed by 99. Three legislators did not vote, including Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar, who were absent during the trust vote. Speaker Rahul Narvekar declared that the trust vote was carried by a majority vote. Following the recent death of a Shiv Sena MLA, the Assembly’s current strength has been reduced to 287, making the majority mark 144.

Both factions of the Shiv Sena — one led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the other by rebel leader and new Chief Minister Eknath Shinde — violated the whips issued by the other group for the Speaker’s election in the Maharashtra Assembly. Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was elected Speaker on June 3 with 164 votes.