Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "I have been trolled severely for my remark that 'I will return'. I am going to take revenge against the trolls by forgiving them"
Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis along with BJP MLAs arrives to attend a special session of Maharashtra Assembly at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai. Pic/PTI
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday won the floor test in the state assembly. In the 288-member house, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence and 99 voted against it.
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Speaking in the House on Monday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "I have been trolled severely for my remark that 'I will return'. I am going to take revenge against the trolls by forgiving them."
He also said when some MLAs were voting (during the floor test), members from the opposition benches shouted "ED, ED".
"It is true the new government is formed by ED, which stands for Eknath and Devendra," the BJP leader remarked.
Without taking the name of former CM Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis claimed Maharashtra witnessed a "deficit of leadership availability" in the last few years.
"But, there are two leaders in the House (Shinde and himself), who will always be available for people," Fadnavis said.
Fadnavis made the statement in the state Assembly after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the floor test in the House during the last day of the two-day special session of the Assembly.
In the 288-member House, 164 MLAs voted for the motion of confidence, while 99 voted against it. Three legislators abstained from voting, while Congress's Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar were among those absent during the trust vote.
Speaker Rahul Narvekar announced that the trust vote was carried by a majority vote.
After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
Last month, Eknath Shinde launched a rebellion against the Sena. Majority of MLAs sided with him, which led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray.
Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy CM.
(With inputs from PTI)