'Original' Shiv Sena faction with 40 MLAs, claims Eknath Shinde: 'Those who defied whip will face action'

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has once again asserted that his faction of 40 Shiv Sena MLAs is the 'original' party.

Addressing the media along with deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, Shinde said that he is the Shiv Sena legislature party leader and Bharat Gogawale the party whip; MLAs who defied his whip in the state assembly on Tuesday will face action as per law.

A cabinet expansion is likely soon, the chief minister said.

He also accused the opposing faction of Uddhav Thackeray of knocking the courts repeatedly to keep hold of the party.

In the first major decision, Shinde announced that the state will cut VAT on fuel to bring petrol and diesel prices down.

Harping on the "double engine" rhetoric so often mentioned by Prime Minister Modi, Eknath Shinde said that speed of development works in a state increase manifold when it joined hands with the Centre.

He also said that governance will benefit from the experience of Devendra Fadnavis, a former chief minister.

"We have seen Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis's decision-making speed in previous govt. He gets the pending work completed. In this govt as well, we'll try to get all pending projects completed as soon as possible, be it the metro project or Samruddhi Mahamarg," Shinde said.

He assured that with a safe majority, he is now better positioned than the MVA government to make decisions in public interest. The next state election will see 100 Shiv Sena and 100 BJP MLAs in the house, Shinde said prophetically.

The chief minister also announced that all those who supported him in Tuesday's floor test in the Maharashtra assembly, will vote for Droupadi Murmu in the upcoming presidential election.

The Eknath Shinde government comfortably won a floor test on Tuesday morning.

In the 288-member assembly (effective strength 287), 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence moved by the Shinde-led government, way above the simple majority mark of 144, while 99 voted against it.

Three legislators abstained from voting, while 21 legislators were absent during the trust vote.

Rival faction leader Uddhav Thackeray however challenged Shinde and 'dared' him to call mid-term polls in the state.

CM talks about 'suppression', unfair treatment in Sena

In his maiden speech in the Assembly after winning the trust vote, an emotional Shinde, without naming the Shiv Sena, said he had been "suppressed" for a long time and spoke about how he almost became Chief Minister of the erstwhile Sena-NCP-Congress alliance government.

He said the rebellion led by him last month was a fallout of the "unfair treatment" meted out to him, an apparent reference to his decades old association with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.