Mumbai: The fate of the Maharashtra government is hanging in Supreme Court, with the apex court putting off a decision on the matter till Tuesday.
As uncertainty looms for another 24 hours, the Shiv Sena- NCP-Congress is trying its best to keep the flock together and are losing no time in staking claim to form the government on Tuesday.
Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, on Monday morning, Sena leader of the legislative party, Eknath Shinde, NCP leader of legislative party, Jayant Patil, and Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat as well as Ashok Chavan reached the Governor’s house. They reportedly even submitted a letter of support of 150 MLAs and requested him to allow them to form a government. Though Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was not in town, the leaders submitted their letter to his secretary.
"Devendra Fadnavis will have to prove majority on the floor of the House. We know that he doesn't have enough numbers. So, once they fail to do that, we as Shiv Sena party claiming to form government. We do have support of NCP, Congress, other alliance partners as well as independents," says the letter submitted to Governor, as per sources.
This move apparently came after a buzz that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may again bring the state under President’s Rule if Fadnavis fails to prove majority in floor of the House.
Right now, NCP has been successful in getting 52 out of 54 MLAs back in its den. On Sunday night, it picked up three ‘missing’ MLAs from Haryana's Gurugram. Congress, Sena and NCP's local units had planned this 'rescue operation', sources said, adding that they called these MLAs from their five-star hotel to meet at a local food joint and picked them up from there.
Now only one MLA, Anna Bansode of Pimpri Chinchwad, is untraceable. The other one is Ajit Pawar. NCP leaders claim that Bansode, too, will return to the party’s fold once they are able to establish contact with him.
Meanwhile, Fadnavis and his deputy Ajit Pawar took charge of their duties in Mantralaya, Mumbai, on Monday.
On the other side, NCP chief Sharad Pawar went to Karad to pay tribute to Yashwantrao Chavan, the first CM of Maharashtra as well as a Congress stalwart, on his death anniversary. There he categorically denied his role in helping his nephew, Ajit, to plan this ‘coup’.
"Such kind of doubts are in your (journalists) mind. People are with us and they do not have any question. I am not worried about the current situation as I have seen many such incidents in my career spanning over 55 years. I am confident that the government of Sena, NCP and Congress will swear in eventually," he added.
