Maharashtra CM Shinde looks to cruise through crucial floor test against Uddhav Thackeray today

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and his ally, the BJP, are placed comfortably in terms of number as they go into the crucial floor test in the assembly against the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena and its allies, the NCP and the Congress.

After comfortably cruising through the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s election on Sunday, the Eknath Shinde-BJP government faces the much-awaited floor test on Monday that will put the seal of legitimacy on the rebel faction of the Shiv Sena as the legislative group of the party.

1. The floor test comes a day after Rahul Narwekar of the BJP won the Speaker’s poll with 164 votes in his favour.

2. One of the first actions that Narwekar took as the Speaker on Monday night was reinstating Eknath Shinde as the legislative group leader of the Shiv Sena and Bharat Gogavale as the chief whip. Earlier Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal had accepted the Uddhav group's claim and had made Ajay Choudhary the leader of Shiv Sena’s legislative group.

3. The floor test comes at a time when the Uddhav faction’s appeal against allowing 16 rebel MLAs to vote in the floor test is pending in the Supreme Court. The Uddhav faction had sought the disqualification of the 16 MLAs.

4. However, even if the 16 MLAs are disqualified, the Shinde-BJP combine has the numbers to comfortably win the floor test. If the Speaker’s poll is anything to go by, Shinde is looking at a decisive win against Uddhav Thackeray.

5. Rahul Narwekar is likely to issue notices to 16 Shiv Sena MLAs from Uddhav Thackeray's faction ahead of the floor test. If the 16 MLAs do not vote in favour of Shinde, they could be disqualified.

6. Two MLA’s from the Uddhav faction’s ally NCP — Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, who are in jail at present — are unlikely to vote.