Mumbai, December 7
The three-day special session of Maharashtra’s 288-member Legislative Assembly began here today where Chief Minister Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers took oath as legislators. The election of the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha will be held on December 9, after which the Devendra Fadnavis-led government will receive a vote of confidence and the Governor will address the joint meeting of both the houses of the state legislature. Senior BJP MLA Kalidas Kolumbakar was sworn in as an MLA yesterday and after that Governor CP Radhakrishnan appointed him as Pro-tem Speaker (Provisional Speaker) of the Vidhan Sabha. Pro-tem Speaker Kolumbakar administered oath to Fadnavis, Shinde and Pawar as MLAs immediately after the proceedings of the House started at 11 am. Earlier, Chansukh Sancheti and Jayakumar Rawal (both BJP), Manikrao Kokate (NCP) and Ashish Jaiswal (Shiv Sena) took oath. This was done because the Governor appointed him as a member of the Pratem Speaker Panel. Chief Minister Fadnavis took oath for the sixth time as a member of the lower house of the state legislature. -News-Patiala
Opposition alliance MVA boycotted the event
Opposition alliance Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) boycotted the event alleging misuse of EVMs. Opposition members refused to take oath on the first day of the special session and questioned the credibility of EVMs and the heavy mandate given to the ruling Mahayuti alliance. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray said, ‘When a government comes to power with such a large majority, there is celebration. The question arises whether the public mandate that he received was given by the people or by the EVM and the Election Commission of India.