Maharashtra Crisis: Thackeray Government Quits after Supreme Court Refused to Stall Floor Test

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 29: The Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced his decision to resign after the official group received a set back from the Supreme Court refusing to stall the floor test on Thursday ordered by the governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari.

Delivering its order late on Wednesday night after some four hours of arguments for and against the governor’s order for the floor test within 24 hours’ notice, the apex court ruled that the Uddhav Thackeray must prove tomorrow that his government still has a majority.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his team, reduced to just 13 MLAs, had asked the court to stop the floor test called tomorrow by the Governor of the state. The Supreme Court, however, said the result of the vote tomorrow would be subject to its verdict on July 11, when it would decide whether a section of MLAs from the Sena should be disqualified, as requested by Thackeray’s side.

Soon after the apex court order, Thackeray addressed the people of the state over television and facebook and announced his decision to submit the resignation of his cabinet ending the 31 months rule by the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by him.

Thackeray’s seeking of court intervention against the governor’s orders for floor test was an attempt to buy time. A total of 39 MLAs from his own party have turned against him, led by Eknath Shinde, a senior Sena leader. They contend that their faction – far larger in size than the Chief Minister’s -I s now the real Shiv Sena and that the party must exit the current government, which includes the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as its allies, and re-enter its earlier partnership with the BJP.

Earlier pending the judgement of the Supreme Court, the rebel MLAs led by Shinde left Guwahati for Goa in a special chartered flight on Wednesday evening to be able to reach the state Assembly precincts for the confidence vote on Thursday as ordered by the governor.

Soon after the governor issued order on Wednesday morning on the state assembly secretary to convene a special session of the House at 11 A.M. on Thursday for the MVA government headed by the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to prove its majority, the Team Thackeray went to the Supreme Court with the argument that Governor Koshyari’s order was illegal, as 16 rebel MLAs have yet to respond on their possible disqualification.

The Governor ordered the test of strength a day after BJP leaders met him and told him the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition had lost its majority.

The Congress leader and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented Thackeray’s side, contending that one-day notice is too short and arguing that the no-trust vote is linked to the disqualification proceedings. “The Governor’s order to conduct floor test with supersonic speed amounts to putting the cart before the horse,” he said, accusing him of “short-circuiting” the Supreme Court proceedings.

The rebel camp led by Eknath Shinde claimed to be the real Shiv Sena in the Supreme Court. It said when a government loses majority, there was a risk of it misusing the office of the Speaker for its benefit.

Thackeray may resign if the Supreme Court sides with the Governor, sources said. At a cabinet meeting in the evening, the Chief Minister thanked his cabinet colleagues for the cooperation they extended in the last two and a half years. “The Chief Minister said ‘my own people stabbed me in the back’. It may seem like a farewell but he did not say he was resigning,” Shiv Sena leader Arvind Sawant said.

The BJP Mumbai Secretary Vivekanand Gupta said the Governor was not a respondent to the disqualification matter before the Supreme Court. “Hence no order of Supreme court is binding on him. The Governor being the constitutional head is well with his rights to call for floor test, when MLAs have shown no confidence in the government,” Gupta tweeted.

“We will reach Mumbai tomorrow. 50 MLAs are with us. We’ve two-thirds majority. We are not worried about any floor test. We will pass the test and no one can stop us. In a democracy majority matters and we have that,” Shinde told reporters in Guwahati before departure on Wednesday. The dissidents earlier were scheduled to leave Guwahati by afternoon after a “darshan” of the Kamakhya temple but delayed the departure till late evening pending the order of the Supreme Court.

The Team Thackeray had asked the Deputy Speaker, who is holding the office in the absence of an elected speaker, to disqualify 16 MLAs including Shinde, after which the rebel camp approached the Supreme Court, calling the move illegal. The court gave the rebel Sena MLAs time until July 12 to respond to notices for their possible disqualification.

The governor in his order said the test of strength would be telecast live, and the proceedings would be recorded on camera by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat through an independent agency. “In order to ensure free and fair voting, it shall be conducted by asking members to rise in their seats for the purpose of counting votes…” Koshiyari said.

Shinde claims he has the support of nearly 50 MLAs, some 40 of them from the Shiv Sena. The majority mark currently stands at 144 in the 287-member assembly. The ruling alliance of the Shiv Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, or NCP, has 152 MLAs. The state government is bound to shrink to minority if the 40 Sena rebels voted against it.

Earlier during the hearing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared for Governor Koshyari argued that the objective to issue disqualification notices through the Speaker was to cover the fact that the government was in minority. He said the “Deputy Speaker gave two days’ notice to the Shinde faction to respond to disqualification notice. The same person now complains that only one day has been given before floor test. There are many cases in which the SC has ordered floor test in 24 hours. Majority cannot be determined in the Raj Bhavan but on the floor of the House where everybody can see.”

Another senior advocate Maninder Singh for dissidents’ camp had argued that the governor did not require aid and advice of the council of ministers for calling for the floor test. He said the “SC only followed the principles of natural justice to give the 16 dissident MLAs time to respond… That order cannot freeze the hand of the Governor to call for a floor test.”

Justice Kant: “Suppose floor test is held. Later it comes to a turn that the process which evolved into the floor test was unconstitutional, we can intervene. It is not an irreversible situation.” He also said, “We have asked this question before. Can a government, knowing it is in minority, use the Speaker‘s office to issue disqualification notices en masse?

Senior Advocate A.M. Singhvi, representing the Thackeray faction, had argued that the apex court have to maintain a balance. “Either lift the fetter on the Speaker and allow him to go ahead with the disqualification proceedings or keep the floor test in temporary abeyance.”

Singhvi also argued that the dissidents who are no longer members of the House are being allowed to swim in a pool in which they do not belong. They are being allowed to swim in the pool with irreversible consequences. This is like allowing a person from the street being allowed to vote in the floor test.

“There is undue haste and hurry. Governor has to act on the aid and advice of the Chief Minister. He cannot act on the aid and advice of the Leader of Opposition,” Singhvi said. “The conduct of the rebel MLAs makes it evident they have given up party membership. The letter 34 MLAs wrote to the Governor complaining about the party amounts to voluntarily giving up party membership.”

“If heavens will not fall if the disqualification proceedings have been put on hold till July 12, how will heavens falls if the floor test is not held tomorrow?” Singhvi had questioned.