Positions clear, whips out for trust vote

SHINDE'S FIRST WIN: ASSEMBLY SPEAKER POST

- Chaitanya Marpakwar & Prafulla Marpakwar

After days of uncertainty about which of the remaining Shiv Sena MLAs would jump ship to join rebel leader and now chief minister Eknath Shinde's camp, voting for the speaker's election on Sunday indicated that the positions were settled for now with 16 MLAs finally remaining in Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's camp. This clears the air on who is on which side for the confidence vote on Monday.

There was also a major political setback for Thackeray, as the legislature secretariat, following an approval granted by newly elected speaker Rahul Narwekar, retained Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party and approved the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena in place of Sunil Prabhu.

The party leadership had on October 31, 2019, appointed Shinde as the leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party.

After Shinde left with 39 legislators, Thackeray had replaced him with Ajay Choudhary as the leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party.

Earlier in the day, the Thackeray camp of the Sena, and the Congress and the NCP issued separate whips for its members that directed them not to vote in favour of a confidence motion on Monday. Following the changes, the whip issued by Prabhu will have no legal validity.