MVA alliance is stable: Maharashtra Congress incharge

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 4 (ANI): Refuting "rumours" that Congress was about to pull out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Maharashtra Congress-in-charge HK Patil on Monday said that the Congress is with MVA and the three-party alliance was intact.
"I saw some reports stating Congress likely to pull out of the MVA alliance in Maharashtra. It is false. Congress has neither discussed this nor decided on anything. The rumours are far away from the truth. MVA alliance is stable," HK Patil said.
Stating the recent Maharashtra crisis as an "example of BJP's Operation Lotus', the Congress incharge in the state said, "The way BJP has done a new experiment to break the party (Shiv Sena) in Maharashtra is an example of the BJP's 'Operation lotus'."
"Congress is with MVA, and the 3-party alliance is intact. Today, we all have voted for the no-confidence motion," he added.
A floor test to prove the majority of the new Shinde-led government in Maharashtra took place today, wherein Shinde's position as the state's chief minister and the leader of the Shiv Sena got cemented after 164 votes were polled in his favour, while 99 were polled against the coalition of the BJP-Shinde camp.
The Congress incharge in Maharashtra further told ANI that he does not feel that the current government in the state (Shinde-led Shiv Sena) would last long as their restlessness shows the lack of unity amongst the MLAs.
"To me, it appears that this govt (Eknath Shinde government) won't last long... This govt won't be able to function... there are many confusions and contradictions. Shiv Sena MLAs are restless... the way they have travelled so much shows that they are not united," he said.
Notably, Eknath Shinde led a revolt against Shiv Sena leading to the collapse of the 31-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on June 30.
Fadnavis, who was Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014-19, had announced at a joint press conference in Mumbai on Thursday that Eknath Shinde will be the new CM. Fadnavis also announced at the press conference that he will not be part of the government.
In today's floor test, Shiv Sena MLA from Shetkari Kamgar Paksh of Uddhav Thackeray faction Shyamsundar Shinde also voted in favour of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in the trust vote today. He did not join the Shinde faction but voted in their favour.
Former ministers Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar of Congress were out of the House, hence they were not able to vote, while Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh also did not come to House for voting.
The trust vote came a day after BJP's Rahul Narwekar was elected the Assembly Speaker. On Sunday, Narwekar reinstated Shinde as the Shiv Sena's legislative party leader and also recognised the appointment of Gogawale as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena. (ANI)