Mumbai:
Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis on Friday slammed the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance government of discussing a secret trust vote rather than giving relief to farmers in distress. The Thackeray led MVA government is slated to take the trust vote on November 30. It may be recalled that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had given time to Thackeray till December 3 to prove his majority on the floor of legislative assembly.
Slamming the government further, Fadnavis wanted to know “if this government has majority then why are they secretly calling the house? Why efforts to change the Pro-tem Speaker, going against the rules? Why still doubt your own MLAs so much? Why are they still hiding them?”
The former chief minister further stated “when the BJP has already announced that it will sit in the opposition and Maha Vikas Aaghadi has made so many claims that they have full majority, that too exhibiting in different ways, why this secrecy and fear? Maharashtra wants these answers!”
Speaking to The News 21.com, former Maharashtra Legislature Secretary Anant Kalse clarified that the new government is free to choose its own Pro-tem Speaker. He further added that the Governor is constitutionally duty bound to accept the advice recommended by the state government. Sources disclosed that senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former speaker Dilip Walse-Patil has been nominated as the Pro-tem Speaker for the November 30 floor test.
Fadnavis is yet to be officially appointed as the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, although the BJP has already elected him as its legislature party leader. His election to the post will be officially declared by the Assembly Speaker in the house.
Firing the first salvo at his onetime best friend Thackeray, the former chief minister remarked “in the first cabinet meeting of new government, yesterday, they chose to discuss how to prove majority secretly, instead of discussing on how assistance & relief can be given to farmers suffering from unseasonal rains”.
Earlier, late yesterday night reacting to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the MVA, Fadnavis remarked that although the MVA has made a plethora of promises in it, there is not a word of mention of Marathwada, Vidarbha and North Maharashtra, regions which have for decades lagged behind in the path towards progress. He expressed the hope that the new government pay attention to it.
