In a special assembly session in Maharashtra, interim speaker Kalidas Kolambkar administered oath to the MLAs today. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday called the special session hours after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis resigned as the Chief Minister of the Maharashtra government in a dramatic turn of events. NCP's Ajit Pawar, his deputy, had also resigned on Tuesday afternoon.
The resignations came after the Supreme Court ordered an "immediate" floor test, to be telecast live, so that Mr Fadnavis could prove his majority in the assembly. "If the floor test is delayed, there is a possibility of horse-trading, it becomes incumbent upon the Court to act to protect democratic values," said the court. The court was hearing a petition by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine that had challenged the government formation in Maharashtra, calling it undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be sworn in on Thursday as Chief Minister of a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, an unthinkable alliance because of its ideologically mismatched constituents. "I had never dreamed of leading the state. I would like to thank (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and others," Mr Thackeray said after being elected to lead the alliance.
The BJP, which won 105 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, needed 40 MLAs to prove a majority. The party had banked on Ajit Pawar to bring in 54 NCP MLAs, but the gamble didn't pay; hardly anyone followed "Ajit-Dada". Ajit Pawar, NCP patriarach's nephew, resigned on Tuesday in a dramatic turn of events.