New Delhi: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the floor test in the state assembly.In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it.Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote has been carried by a majority vote.After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.Shinde was sworn in as chief minister on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post due to Shinde and other MLAs’ defection from the Shiv Sena. Shinde has the support of the BJP. BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy chief minister.Ahead of the floor test, one more Shiv Sena MLA from the Thackeray camp joined Shinde’s faction, taking its tally to 40.The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs in the 288-member state assembly.Santosh Bangar, the MLA from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district, on Monday morning switched over to the Shinde camp.Earlier, in a jolt to Thackeray ahead of the floor test, Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar had on Sunday reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena legislature party leader, removing Ajay Chaudhary.Narvekar also recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.(With PTI inputs)
