Trust vote: MIM to bail out BJP in Maharashtra Assembly today

It SEEMS the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP will sail through the trust vote today without hiccups The party claims it has managed to gather support from a total of 140 MLAsIt already has 122 MLAs including an alliance partner and sources said that the party would receive indirect support from unexpected quarters mdash the MajliseIttehadul Muslimeen MIM which has decided to abstain from voting against the BJPCM Devendra Fadnavis claimed the BJP has the support of 140 MLAs Meanwhile Shiv Sena has sought to know how many of its MLAs would be inducted in Fadnavisrsquo Cabinet PicPTISpeaking with media persons at his chamber in Vidhan Bhavan on Tuesday Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that apart from 122 MLAs from the BJP and its ally three MLAs from Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi and a group of independent MLAs have decided to support his government A delegation of eight MLAs led by the Peasants and Workers Party PWP met him and told him they had decided to back the governmentThough Fadnavis didnrsquot reveal who are supporting the BJP sources said the two MLAs of MIM have decided not to vote against the party A dialogue with the MIM was established through RPI leader and Rajya Sabha member Ramdas Athawale sources claimed adding that the party has decided to stay neutralFormer journalist and newly elected MLA Imtiaz Jaleel took a similar line while talking to a section of the media on Monday ldquoWe are for development and we are not going to vote during the trust voterdquo he said With this assertion it is clear that MIMrsquos decision is going to benefit the BJP government Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar will move the trust vote todaySena situationMeanwhile beleaguered ally Shiv Sena facing unrest among its MLAs is still hopeful of a solution and is believed to have urged the BJP top brass to announce at least the number of Cabinet posts it wants to offer to the SenaAccording to senior leaders of the saffron parties Shiv Sena on Tuesday sought to know how many ministers from their party would be inducted The BJP on the other hand is trying its best to squeeze the former ally as much as possible When Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was heard as saying that a formula could still be possible BJPrsquos CM Devendra Fadnavis said no talks on departments would take place furtherIn related developments Shiv Sena decided to field its candidate for the Assembly speakerrsquos post SenarsquosVijay Auti filed his nomination papers yesterday making the fight triangular one Congress too jumped into the fray by fielding Varsha Gaikwad for the post According to sources from the Congress it was a pressure tactic to ensure the post of deputy speaker for its candidate CM Fadnavis held a meeting with group leaders of Congress and Shiv Sena later in the day and appealed to them to withdraw their nominations and support BJPrsquos candidate Haribhau BagdeHowever the parties refused to do soTo work on its strategies for the Dday Congress had a meeting of its legislators at Vidhan Bhavan the Shiv Sena party chief addressed his MLAs at Shivalaya and NCP had a meeting of its MLAs at its party office located near Mantralaya BJP met its MLAs at Y B Chavan Centre