The political drama in Maharashtra, which is now over a month old after the declaration of Assembly results on October 24, has outshined many imbroglios which we have been witness to in the past in several states over government formation. Hunger for power has also steam-rolled ideology for the all engaging political parties. With the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Sunday, asking the Government to furnish all documents related to the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar as Deputy Chief Minister by Monday 10.30 am, the time for “floor test” seems to have been further shifted as the law takes its own course.
What hit hard the post-poll alliance of the three parties christened as ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’, which was busy devising modalities of government formation in Maharashtra, was when they were caught napping on Saturday morning as President’s Rule was revoked at around 5.47 am and then Devendra Fadanvis and Ajit Pawar were sworn-in as chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively around 8am. It really came as a surprise to all, even the media, as no one was aware of this move. In fact, the political ball started rolling after this and the doors of the Supreme Court were knocked for an urgent hearing on Sunday, which happened.
Also, in a dramatic development Ajit Pawar the Deputy CM and nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar, who was in self-confinement emerged on twitter, thanking all those who congratulated him and Fadnavis after being sworn-in. His thank you massage also included Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At around 5pm on Sunday, Ajit Pawar tweeted “I am in the NCP and shall always be in the NCP and “Sharad Pawar” (@PawarSpeaks) Saheb is our leader. Our BJP-NCP alliance shall provide a stable Government in Maharashtra for the next five years which will work sincerely for the welfare of the State and its people.” This was negated by Sharad Pawar in his tweet by saying that “there is no question of forming an alliance with the BJP” and that Ajit Pawar’s statement in his tweet was “false and misleading.”
Horses are still cantering and the traders are having a field day in Maharashtra as the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena expected the Supreme Court to order an “immediate floor test”, which never happened on Sunday. Political parties are busy shifting their MLAs from one hotel to another to keep their flock together. The irony is that the newly elected MLAs in Maharashtra are still to be sworn-in and this is likely to be done by a pro-tem speaker whenever the Assembly is convened for its first session, post the October results.
Far from Maharashtra, in 1997 Uttar Pradesh too witnessed such drama when a popular Congress party leader, now a BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, served as CM for a day. Pal is now famously remembered as “one-day” wonder of Uttar Pradesh politics for becoming a controversial CM amidst high political drama. When the then UP Governor Romesh Bhandari had made him the CM, the victim of the drama then was BJP’s Kalyan Singh. During February 21-22, 1998, Governor Bhandari proposed to implement President’s rule which was rejected by the Center then. The UP state Assembly witnessed bloody scenes during the confidence motion on the floor.
Happy over the decision of the Centre of not imposing President’s Rule, BJP’s CM candidate Kalyan Singh appointed a 93-member cabinet that also included elected representatives from other parties. The other political parties, miffed by this move, tried to de-stabilise the government. Singh was in for a shock when Bhandari declined to recognise the outsiders in his cabinet and dissolved the government overnight. This provided a chance to Pal to constitute his government. However, the government could not run for more than a day and fell flat.
Almost similar cases were witnessed in Jharkhand in 2005, Uttarakhand in 2016, Tamil Nadu in 2017 and closer home, Goa in 2017. State elections in Goa had unfolded in a similar manner in 2017. Governor Mridula Sinha had invited BJP leader Manohar Parrikar to form the government, even though the Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the elections. BJP had won 13 of the 40 seats. The Congress had bagged 17 seats and emerged as the single largest party.
The then Goa Congress CLP leader Chandrakant Kavlekar moved the Supreme Court on March 13, 2017, challenging the Governor’s decision to invite Parrikar to form the government. A bench of the Supreme Court, while rejecting the Congress’s objection, ordered a floor test. The court, however, ruled that in such a situation, the Governor had discretionary powers and that the Congress had not demonstrated its numbers before the Governor.
In Maharashtra too the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ has yet to stake claim or present their numbers before Governor Koshyari. The political battle has now landed in the court while the farmers and common people will have to be onlooker of this drama which seems unending unless it is sorted out on the floor of the Assembly.
