Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde wins confidence vote

By Our Special Correspondent

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said he has been oppressed for too long and that his denial of the coup was an injustice done to him, while Uddhav Thackeray's denial clearly shows his old association with the Shiv Sena.

In his maiden speech in the assembly after winning the trust vote, an emotional Shinde, without naming the Shiv Sena, said he had been "oppressed" for too long and talked about how he almost became chief minister of the former Sena—the NCP Congress coalition government. He said the rebellion led by him last month was fallout from the "unfair treatment" he faced, a clear reference to his decades-old association with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.

Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister on 30 June, with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. “When I came here for election, there are people in this House who saw how I was treated. I have been suppressed for a long time. Sunil Prabhu (Shiv Sena MLA from Uddhav Thackeray faction) is also a witness,” he said without elaborating.

In the 288-member assembly (effective strength 287), 164 MLAs voted in favor of the confidence motion moved by the Shinde-led government, more than the simple majority of 144, while 99 voted against- the day's special house, 263 MLAs voted. While three MLAs were absent, 20 legislators, most of them from Congress and NCP, Ashok Chavan of Congress and Vijay Wadettiwar, two former ministers, were absent from the confidence test.

Quoting former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, Shinde said a senior NCP leader had told him that there was an "accident" in the Shiv Sena after the formation of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi government that came to power in November 2019.