New Delhi: Jailed Nationalist Congress Party leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to attend a floor test Thursday, which has been called so that the ruling government could prove its majority.
The apex court will hear the matter in the evening.
The Sena, along with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, form the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
On Tuesday, Governor Bhagat Singh Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked for a special session of the assembly for the state government to seek a trust vote – amid the rebellion inside the Shiv Sena.
Last week, nearly half of the Sena MLAs revolted against party head and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on several issues. Calling themselves the “real Shiv Sena”, the MLAs headed by minister Eknath Shinde, camped in BJP-ruled Assam for a week.
They flew to Goa on Wednesday and are expected to attend the floor test tomorrow.
BJP leader and opposition head Devendra Fadnavis met the Governor at Raj Bhavan late Tuesday night to ask for the MVA government to prove its majority.
Earlier in the day, Fadnavis flew to Delhi to meet party senior leaders J.P. Nadda and Amit Shah.
The Shiv Sena has challenged the governor’s request for a floor test in the Supreme Court, calling it “illegal”.
The Supreme Court had earlier denied similar pleas by the jailed leaders in the case of the recently-concluded Maharashtra Legislative Council.
Cabinet minister Nawab Malik and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh have been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in money-laundering cases and are currently lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail.
Also read: Rebels have to ‘answer whether betrayal is okay’, says Aaditya Thackeray, pass ‘morality test’