Acting swiftly, the Trimurti combine of Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress on Monday staked claim to form an alternative government in Maharashtra. The top leaders of three parties visited Raj Bhavan and submitted a letter along with a list of 162 MLAs.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was, however, not in Mumbai, and the letter was handed over to his secretary.
Shiv Sena legislature party leader Eknath Shinde, state NCP president and legislature party leader Jayant Patil, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat and Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut were present.
The development happened when the Supreme Court was conducting hearing on Congress-Sena-NCP plea to conduct floor test within 24 hours and when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Deputy Ajit Pawar were visiting the Vidhan Bhavan complex to pay tributes to Maharashtra's first chief minister and ex-deputy prime minister YB Chavan.
"We have submitted a list of 162 members," Patil said. The common minimum programme of the three parties is also ready, he added.
"They (BJP-Ajit Pawar group) don't have numbers and they can't prove majority in the floor of the House," Thorat said.
On Sunday evening, the BJP tasked four veterans Narayan Rane, Ganesh Naik, Babanrao Pachpute and Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil to garner support of rival group MLAs. "We are in touch with everyone, and, everyone means everyone, we will prove majority," said Pachpute.
Meanwhile, NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar, who was in Karad, said that shifting to the BJP was Ajit's personal decision and not that of the NCP. "We have the numbers," he said.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's aide Sanjay Raut said that he has come across media reports that Ajit Pawar has been promised chief minister's post on a rotational basis.
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