Maharashtra: Balasaheb Thorat elected Congress legislative party leader

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Nov 26 (ANI): Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat was on Tuesday elected as the Congress party's legislative leader in the state.
The announcement was made by senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the party MLAs' meeting at a Hotel in Mumbai.
All the Congress legislators are currently lodged in the Hyatt hotel in Mumbai.
The Supreme Court earlier today ordered that a floor test should be held in the Maharashtra assembly before 5 pm on November 27, days after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the state's chief minister nixing Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP's bid to form the government in the state.
The floor test is a constitutional mechanism under which a chief minister can be asked to prove majority in the state assembly.
Yesterday, Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP submitted a letter of MLAs at Raj Bhavan saying the present dispensation does not have numbers and staked claim to form the government.
In a surprise development, Fadnavis took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister for the second time while NCP's Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as his deputy on the morning of November 23.
The BJP had won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly in last month's assembly polls followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. Although BJP and Shiv Sena got the mandate to form the government, the two parties parted ways over power-sharing.
On the occasion of Constitution Day today, Opposition parties, including Congress staged a protest against government formation by BJP in Maharashtra in front of Ambedkar Statue inside Parliament complex while a joint sitting of both the houses was underway in the Central Hall. (ANI)