Former Maharashtra CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis being fed sweets by Maharashtra BJP President Chandrakant Patil
Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, along with Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Fadnavis had earlier surprised everyone when he announced that Eknath Shinde will be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra and that he will not be part of the government. However, his decision not to take part in the state cabinet changed after BJP National president J P Nadda had personally urged him to be the Deputy.
Talking to reporters after meeting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari along with Shinde at Raj Bhavan, Fadnavis said some rebel Sena MLAs, BJP legislators as well as Independents will be inducted during the cabinet expansion later.
Maharashtra political crisis
The 2.5-year (approx 31 months) tenure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed after over 40 MLAs mostly of Shiv Sena and independents rebelled against the coalition government.
The political drama which went on for weeks began after the MLC election results were declared on June 21. On the night of the results, Eknath Shinde along with over 15 MLAs left for Surat where they camped for a few days.
As the crisis further unfolded, more MLAs of Shiv Sena rebelled against the top leader leadership and the MVA govt and joined Shinde’s camp. A few days later, BJP became active and Devendra Fadnavis met Governor demanding a floor test reiterating that the MVA government didn’t have the numbers.
The next day, June 29, Maharashtra Governor asked Uddhav Thackeray to prove the majority and ordered a floor test on Thursday. However, the MVA government approached Supreme Court but lost the case against the floor test.
Soon after Supreme Court refused to stay the floor test, Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the post of CM saying he was not interested in the numbers game.