No-confidence motion in Parliament: Shiv Sena to vote in BJP’s favour at Lok Sabha

(From left to right) Maharashtra CM Fadnavis, BJP president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray at Matoshree at Bandra East. (File)

EVEN AS it continues to slam ally Bharatiya Janata Party on a range of issues, including in its editorials in party mouthpiece Saamana, the Shiv Sena will on Friday vote in favour of the Narendra Modi-led Union government during the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha.

Sources said BJP national president Amit Shah spoke to Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on the no-confidence motion being moved in Parliament.

Chandrakant Khaire, Sena MP and party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, issued a whip on Thursday, saying “some very important legislative business will be taken up for discussion and passing in the Lok Sabha” on Thursday and Friday.

It further said that “all the members of the Shiv Sena in Lok Sabha are, therefore, requested to be positively present in the House on both days” and “support the government’s stand”. However, Sena leaders said a formal decision is yet to be taken by the party.

“A meeting of party MPs has been scheduled for Friday at 10 am,” said Khaire. However, the people from the Konkan region fighting against the proposed Nanar refinery project have urged the Sena to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion on Friday.

“We hope that the Sena will vote in favour of the no-confidence motion against the BJP, which has proposed this refinery project that will ruin the Konkan region. By doing so, it will give us confidence that the Sena is with us. Otherwise, it will be clear that the Sena is deceiving us,” said Ashok Walam, president of the Konkan Refinery Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti.