Although this rebel group of MLAs has filed a petition in Supreme Court saying that they have withdrawn their support to Maha Vikas Aghadi, an interim order has not been given.
It’s been almost two weeks since the affairs related to Sena begin but it’s also true that in these 14 days there has been no change in the government. Hence, MLAs and ministers of the rebel camp are also at unease.
Apart from the party’s state president and a few other responsible leaders, BJP seems to have kept their opinions reserved about the same. It will also be interesting to see how the local public reacts to either breaking or ending the Balasaheb Thackeray founded party.
Moreover, those who thought that the rebel group and the BJP which is undoubtedly the force behind these moves would topple the Udhav Thackeray government and form a BJP Sena government, with ease, need to rethink. The BJP can ill afford an all-out attack on the Sena, given its cadre base and popularity in Maharashtra.
It’s the ministers and MLAs in the Sena-led government who are making the accusations. The crucial question here is whether the government in Maharashtra is really in minority. The governor’s role is important whenever MLAs withdraw their support.
If a party or MLAs write a letter mentioning that the government has indeed fallen in minority, the governor orders the chief minister to pass a confidence resolution. For this, the governor gives an order to call for an emergency assembly session. The Supreme Court has given a clear statement saying if MLAs withdraw their support or the government is unable to keep themselves in the majority, the strength in the Assembly should be checked.
Hence, whether the Uddhav-led government has a majority or not will be decided in the Assembly itself. All in all, whatever is going on outside of the Assembly holds no value at least for now. Although BJP is mounting pressure on the MVA coalition, their stress should have been on proving that the government has indeed lost the majority. It’s also unclear at this point whether they are going to solve this matter by merging the rebel group led by Eknath Shinde into BJP.
The “Bommai judgment” as always, becomes the guiding principle in such situations, The Bommai government of Janata Dal in Karnataka was terminated in a similar fashion. Chief Minister S R Bommai had claimed to have a majority but the Governor disputed his claims and recommended President’s rule. Bommai went against this to High Court and eventually to Supreme Court, a case that famously came to be known as S.R. Bommai v/s India. The bench of nine Supreme Court judges in their ruling said that whether the government has a majority or fallen in minority should be decided in the Assembly (Floor of the House) itself. Since then, Courts have been ordering parties to prove a majority within the House.
The current government of MVA led by Uddhav Thackeray came to power on November 28, 2019. The governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ordered to pass a vote of confidence which they won by the margin of 169-0. The government was smoothly for the past 2.5 years until the Eknath Sinde-led rebellion.
