Nobody saw it coming! Simply no one! And yet, it happened! Even as India was waking up to a lazy Saturday, a political earthquake in Maharashtra sent the shockwaves across the country. While everyone was expecting a formal announcement by the NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress on the government formation in Maharashtra, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Chief Minister in a hush-hush ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on Saturday morning around 8 am. Indian Twitter is understandably shocked. People are reacting with big WHAAAAT!!! Here’s how India is taking its morning chai with this biggest upheaval in Maharashtra politics.
The overnight development makes Friday’s statements of political leadres a thing of past. Less than 24 hours back, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday had ‘confirmed’ that party chief Uddhav Thackeray had agreed to become the chief minister. Raut’s remarks came a few hours after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena will form a government in Maharashtra under the leadership of Thackeray. The announcement was made after a meeting of the three parties to evolve a consensus on the development agenda for governance for the prospective ruling coalition.
"Uddhav Thackeray has given his consent to become the chief minister," said Raut. Top leaders of the Sena, the Congress, and the NCP met on Friday to give shape to a new government to be led by the Uddhav Thackeray-headed party, nearly a month after assembly poll results were announced. The state has been facing a political crisis after the Sena broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister’s post. The BJP and the Sena, which fought the Assembly polls in the alliance, had secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly.
The NCP and the Congress, pre-poll allies, won 54 and 44 seats, respectively. The combined tally of the Sena, the NCP and the Congress is way beyond the majority mark of 145. The state was under the President’s Rule.
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