Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress Request Supreme Court To Direct Immediate Floor Test For Fadnavis Government

Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress has been submitted in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the Governor of Maharashtra. Terming Koshyari’s decision "arbitrary and malafide actions/decisions", the petition requested the top court to direct immediate floor test for the Fadnavis government. The petition mentioned that the Governor's actions in the morning should be declared illegal and Sena-NCP-Congress should be invited to form the govt.

"There is nothing in public domain as to how and in what manner Shri Devendra Fadnavis and/or the BJP had staked claim power between the intervening night of 22.11.2019 and 23.11.2019," the three parties said in their petition to the Supreme Court.

"Further there is no material in the public domain to show that Shri Devendra Fadnavis had carried letters of support of 144 MLA's (which in any event was not legally possible to do). The Petitioners categorically assert that all the MLA's of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are completely and solidly with the alliance except for Shri Ajit Pawar," the petition said.

"It is submitted that the Hon'ble Governor has acted in a partisan manner and has made a mockery of the high office of the Governor. It is respectfully submitted that the Governor's actions between the intervening night of 22.11.2019 and 23.11.2019 culminating to the swearing in on the 23.11.2019 are a text book example of the Governor acting at the behest of a political party in power at the Centre," it said.

The Congress on Saturday said that government formation in Maharashtra is ‘betrayal of people’s mandate. Addressing a press conference in the national capital party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala also accused Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of acting like hitman of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “The governor worked not as a constitutional authority, but as a hitman at the instance of Amit Shah,” Surjewala said. He also called NCP leader Ajit Pawar opportunist and said the government in the state has been formed by killing democracy. “BJP scared opportunist Ajit Pawar, formed illegal govt by acting as a contract killer for democracy,” Surjewala said.

Earlier in a series of tweets, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said, "Do not look at me like this in the light, I am politics, I don't wear clothes. This is called: Betrayal of mandate and democracy." Fadnavis had promised to put Ajit Pawar in jail but has made him deputy chief minister now, he said.

Slamming Fadnavis for dismissing media reports that it will not take the support of the NCP to form a government in the state as it has exposed their corruption, Surjewala said, "The hunger for power cleans all the clots of corruption and principles."

In a masterstroke, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, leaving the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena surprised.There were not many people at Raj Bhavan when he was sworn in as CM. The ceremony, which opposition Congress dubbed a clandestine affair after a night of intriguing political developments, the pomp and grandeur of the 2014 event was missing.