Devendra Fadnavis Likely To Resign As Maharashtra Chief Minister, Say Sources

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to resign from his post ahead of the Supreme Court-ordered floor test that will be telecast live at around 5 pm tomorrow, sources said. This came after NCP leader Ajit Pawar resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The top court ruled out the secret ballot and said that all MLAs should take oath by 5 pm and the floor test should be conducted immediately after that. The apex court said that the Protem Speaker will conduct floor test.

So far, the BJP has been conspicuous about the magic figure of majority. On the other hand, the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress has been very open about the number of lawmakers backing them. Though there is no final say yet, two senior-most leaders of the Maharashtra Assembly, whose name sare doing rounds are Balasaheb Thorat of Congress and Kalidas Kolambkar of the BJP.

On November 23, in a stunning turn of events in Maharashtra, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis had returned as Chief Minister propped up by NCP's Ajit Pawar, who was made his deputy, just hours after the new alliance of Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress reached a consensus that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be their chief ministerial candidate.

As the dramatic events leading to the swearing-in of Fadnavis and Pawar at 7.30 a.m. by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari in a hush hush ceremony at Raj Bhavan created fissures in the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP), its chief Sharad Pawar distanced himself from his nephew's dramatic action and said the decision to back Fadnavis for his second consecutive term was his personal choice and not that of the party.