INDIA alliance in Maharashtra to approach SC over ‘election scam’ | Mint

The INDIA alliance on Tuesday decided to approach the Supreme Court over scam that happened in Maharashtra assembly elections to make BJP led alliance win.

The decision was announced after a meeting between NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and noted lawyer and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi here.

Prashant Sudamrao Jagtap, President, NCP(SP) Pune, says, “In today’s meeting (at NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence), we have decided to appear in Supreme Court as INDIA alliance regarding the scam that happened in Maharashtra assembly elections to make BJP led alliance win… All the parties within the INDIA alliance in Maharashtra will go to the Court. We have faith in the Supreme Court and we expect that the SC will pronounce order in our favour and against the scam.”

Pawar has been meeting leaders of his party who lost the assembly elections.

The INDIA bloc has claimed that it lost the elections in Maharashtra due to alleged manipulation of EVMs in favour of the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition.

In the elections held last month, the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition won 235 seats in the 288-member House while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance bagged 46.

During the meeting, Kejriwal flagged concerns related to voter lists in Delhi where assembly elections are due early next year.

Mahayuti govt wins trust vote in Maharashtra assembly

Five days after assuming office, the Mahayuti alliance government in Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday comfortably won a confidence vote in the state assembly. The trust motion, tabled by Shiv Sena MLA Uday Samant and others, was passed by a voice vote on the last day of the three-day special assembly session. Some opposition members were absent when the trust motion was approved in the assembly. They included Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray.

 On December 4, when Governor C P Radhakrishnan handed Fadnavis the letter inviting him to form the government, he had stipulated in the document that the BJP leader must clear the trust motion in the House in 21 days, sources said. Speaker Rahul Narwekar, elected unopposed for a second straight term earlier in the day, announced that the trust motion has been approved by the newly-constituted House. The BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP ‘Mahayuti’ coalition has a commanding majority of 230 seats in the 288-member assembly, where the majority mark is 145. “The confidence motion has been passed with a majority,” Narwekar said.