From ED taunts to CM's tears, Maharashtra Assembly session begins

Newly elected Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde proved his majority in the Assembly on Monday after winning the trust vote 164 to 99.

Several interesting incidents took place during the two-day special Assembly session that concluded today. Here is a look at some of them:

Tears to cheers: The night before Monday’s floor test, Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar — who had publicly wept on camera last week in support of Uddhav Thackeray while addressing people in his constituency — officially defected and joined the rival Shinde camp.

On June 24, Bangar uploaded a video on his Twitter handle in which he was seen with his hands folded, pledging allegiance to the ex-chief minister. “Balasaheb Thackeray, Uddhav-ji Thackeray tum aage badho, hum tumhare saath hain (Uddhav Thackeray, keep moving ahead, we are with you),” he chanted.

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As Bangar pleaded with Shinde to come back, one of his supporters could be seen wiping a tear off his cheek with a handkerchief.

Another MLA from the Uddhav faction, Shyamsunder Shinde, also switched sides and defected to the Shinde camp before the trust vote.

Taunts of “ED, ED”: When Bangar voted along with Shinde during Monday’s floor test, he was hooted at by the Opposition MLAs in unison.

Opposition MLAs also chanted “ED, ED” when Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik supported Shinde during Monday’s floor test. Sarnaik is currently being investigated by the ED in a money laundering case.

On Sunday too, Opposition MLAs had also shouted “ED, ED” when Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav voted in favour of the Shinde-Fadnavis combine during the election of the Speaker.

Her husband (and Shiv Sena leader) Yashwant Jadhav, who is also the former chairman of the BMC’s standing committee, is currently under the ED scanner in connection with alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

In a lighter vein: During his speech in the house on Monday, NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that the newly elected Speaker, BJP’s Rahul Narvekar, had a reputation of getting close to whichever party’s top leadership he was working with at any given moment.

Pawar pointed out that Narverkar had switched between three parties in his political career so far.

He first joined the Sena, where he worked closely with Aaditya Thackeray, following which he jumped ship and joined the NCP, where he worked closely with Ajit Pawar himself. When he moved to the BJP, he worked closely with Devendra Fadnavis.

Pawar warned Shinde that the latter should get Narvekar to “work closely” with him too, otherwise “it may not work out well for you.”

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No-show by MLAs: A total of 22 MLAs remained absent during Monday’s floor test. Ten out of the 20 legislators were from the Congress, including ex-CM Ashok Chavan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Dheeraj Deshmukh and Zeeshan Siddiqui (Baba Siddiqui’s son).

Chavan is believed to have reached the house after the vote took place.

NCP’s Sangram Jagtap was missing as well.

Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi and Rais Shaikh, as well as AIMIM’S Shah Farukh Anwar, abstained from voting on Monday during the floor test.

On Sunday, at least 12 MLAs from different political parties remained absent during the election for Maharashtra’s new assembly speaker. Three others had abstained from voting.