'Discussed majority first, then farmers': Fadnavis attacks Maha Vikas Aghadi

Mumbai: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Friday attacked the newly-formed Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra, alleging it preferred discussing proving majority in its first cabinet meet rather than giving relief to farmers and asked why it then claims to have numbers.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister said the state wants to know why the 'Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi' (MVA) of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress was 'scared' when it earlier claimed to have numbers to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly.

Fadnavis sought to know why the three-party alliance is trying to change the protem speaker defying rules if it claims to have adequate numbers.

BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar was recently named as the protem speaker.

Thackeray held his first cabinet meeting on Thursday night, hours after he was sworn-in as the chief minister. Along with him, six other ministers - two each from the Shiv Sena, the NCP and Congress - were also sworn-in.

The new government preferred discussing discreetly how to prove majority than giving help to farmers who are in trouble in the first cabinet meeting.

"Why make claims of having numbers then?" Fadnavis asked on Twitter. He wondered why is the Sena-led government allegedly trying to convene Assembly session (to prove numbers) "discretely" in case it has majority.

Fadnavis accused the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government of distrusting their MLAs, who he claimed, are still held "hostage".

Alliance leaders have repeatedly claimed they have enough numbers in the 288-member state assembly where the majority mark is 145.