New Delhi:
The election for Maharashtra speaker’s post is considered a semi-final ahead of tomorrow’s vote when Eknath Shinde’s government should prove its majority
Here’s what today’s voting result revealed
Rahul Narwekar of the BJP was elected chairman with 164 votes. The opposition candidate Rajan Salvi received 107 votes.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena has moved the Supreme Court over the disqualification of 39 MLAs from the Shinde camp.
If all 39 are disqualified the majority figure would be reduced to 125. Mr Narwekar got 164 votes today, if 39 MLAs are disqualified he would still have the magic number.
This means that the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray does not have the numbers to win the showdown on the floor of the House.
Samajwadi Party and AIMIM MLAs did not vote. Even if they vote tomorrow, Team Uddhav Thackeray will not have the numbers to win the vote.