Shatrughan Sinha praised Supreme Court's order on Maharashtra (File)
Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday called out "greedy politics" in Maharashtra and said the Constitution was taken for granted, in a veiled attack at the BJP hours after its days-old government collapsed in the state. The leader also praised the Supreme Court's Tuesday order that BJP's Devendra Fadnavis take a floor test on Wednesday, saying it kept democracy intact.
"Finally, after the SC verdict good sense seems to have prevailed. The greedy politics which had taken the Constitution for granted, abided by the SC orders keeping democracy & faith intact. Long Live Constitution! Long Live SC! Satyamev Jayate! #ConstitutionDay#MaharashtraCrisis," he tweeted.
Hearing the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP petition over the BJP's stunning government formation in an early morning function on Saturday, the Supreme Court ordered Chief Minister Fadnavis to take a floor test on Wednesday, a directive seen as a measure to prevent horsetrading of MLAs.
After the Supreme Court's order, Ajit Pawar, NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew who had in an act of rebellion taken oath as Mr Fadnavis's deputy, announced his resignation citing personal reasons.
Mr Fadnavis announced his resignation soon after, paving the way for the formation of the Sena-Congress-NCP government.
The BJP, Sena, partners for decades, had won a comfortable majority in the recent Maharashtra election, but they had fallen out over Uddhav Thackeray's "50:50" demand.
The BJP, which won 105 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, needed 40 MLAs to prove a majority. Ajit Pawar, in tweets on Sunday, said his party was in alliance with the BJP, indicating he had support of NCP MLAs.
Three parties, however, proved him wrong on Monday when they paraded over 160 MLAs at a hotel, in a show of strength.
Shatrughan Sinha, a former BJP MP, had quit the party earlier this year over his differences with the leadership. He had contested the national election on the Congress's ticket from Patna Sahib and lost to BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad.