Special session starts in Maha, Oppn MLAs skip

The three-day special session of the Maharashtra assembly began on Saturday with most of the elected representatives of the Mahayuti alliance taking oath as MLAs and the Opposition boycotting the ceremony, alleging misuse of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the recently held assembly polls.

- Faisal Malik

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief ministers Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde were among the ruling coalition members who took the oath of office amid loud cheering and sloganeering from their party leaders. The Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has a brute majority in the House after it won 235 of the state's 288 seats. The Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) could bag only 50 seats in the polls.

The first day of the assembly session was marked by a political tussle between the two alliances as the winning candidates from the Opposition did not take oath and walked out of the House.