Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Saturday, and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, resigned from their posts on Tuesday. This comes hours after the Supreme Court directed Fadnavis to prove majority during the floor test scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
The Governor, BS Koshiyari, will now have to appoint a new Chief Minister. He is likely to call the alliance parties — the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and the Congress — to form the government in Maharashtra.
After the Supreme Court's verdict, Devendra Fadnavis addressed the media and stated that he will be resigning since the BJP does not have the numbers to prove majority.
Addressing the media, Fadnavis said, “I'll go to Raj Bhavan and tender my resignation. Whoever will form the government, I wish them all the best. But this will be a very unstable government as there are huge differences of opinions amongst them.”
"We had decided that we will never indulge in horse trading, that we will never try to break away any MLA. Those who said that we indulge in horse trading bought the entire horse stable," Fadnavis added, hitting out at the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine.
Submitted my resignation as Maharashtra CM to Hon Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji.
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) November 26, 2019
Hon Governor asked me to function as caretaker CM till alternative arrangements pic.twitter.com/TI7ER3iBkv
The Supreme Court on Tuesday had ordered that a floor test be conducted by 5 pm on November 26. A three-judge bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna directed that the floor test will be held via an open ballot and will be telecast live. The Supreme Court also ordered that the senior-most MLA of the House be nominated as the Protem Speaker, who will swear-in the MLAs before holding the floor test.
According to reports, after the SC verdict, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar’s uncle, on Tuesday called Ajit up and and asked him to come back to the NCP.
The BJP had claimed the support of over 170 MLAs on their side, including 105 of its own, besides others from the NCP, independents and smaller parties. The alliance, meanwhile, on Monday, had staked its claim to form the government in the state and had submitted support letters of a total 160 MLAs of the three parties to the Governor's office.
The alliance had moved the Supreme Court against the new government that was sworn-in early Saturday morning, calling the Governor’s decision unconstitutional. In the Maharashtra Assembly elections held on October 21, BJP had won 105 seats in the 288-member House while the NCP had won 54 seats. The Congress had won 44 seats in the Assembly.
On Friday last week, before the sudden swearing in, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar had announced that Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray will be the next Chief Minister of the state. Speaking to the media after the first joint two-hour meeting of the three parties, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar had then said, “We all have come to a consensus that Uddhav Thackeray will be the Chief Minister.”
Prior to the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP and Shiv Sena had come together to contest the elections. However, Sena pulled out of its three-decade-long alliance with the BJP as the latter refused to offer Uddhav Thackeray the Chief Ministership.
When the elections resulted in a hung assembly on October 24, none of the parties could come forward and stake claim to form the government and November 12, the Governor recommended that President’s rule be imposed in Maharashtra.
The unlikely Sena-NCP-Congress alliance was formed after Congress President Sonia Gandhi gave a green signal to party leaders to hold talks with Sena and NCP regarding an alliance. NCP Chief Sharad Pawar has been considered the man forming the alliance.