After a day of forced resignations, the richest state in India has sworn in a new chief minister and his deputy, capping ten days of intense political drama that many believe was staged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In a ceremony held on Thursday in Mumbai, the state’s capital and the country’s financial centre, Eknath Shinde, a member of the Shiv Sena party whose rebellion, along with that of dozens of other legislators, ignited the crisis in the western Indian state, was sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra.
Devendra Fadnavis, a former chief minister of Maharashtra for the BJP who successfully orchestrated the division within the Shiv Sena, was sworn in as Shinde’s deputy.
Even though the right-wing party had more representatives in the state assembly than Shinde’s renegade group, the BJP praised him for his disobedience.
The changes happened the day after Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena, resigned from his position as chief minister in a Facebook live video on Wednesday night, only minutes after the Indian Supreme Court ordered him to conduct a floor test on Thursday to demonstrate his majority.
One of the most unlikely coalitions in Indian history, Thackeray has been leading a coalition government since 2019 with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress parties.
On Monday, the state parliament will ask the Shinde administration to demonstrate its majority, while the Shiv Sena of Thackeray will file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court asking for the disqualification of at least 16 renegade lawmakers.
In the 288-member house, the BJP now has 106 lawmakers, followed by the Shiv Sena with 55, the NCP with 53, and the Congress with 43. To maintain power, a coalition needs 144 votes.
The Hindu nationalist BJP will receive a big boost from the change of leadership in Maharashtra before the national elections of 2024, when Modi is vying for a third consecutive term.
After the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which is also governed by the BJP, Maharashtra is the state that sends the most representatives to the Indian parliament.
The opposition has suffered a great loss as a result of the fall of Uddhav Thackeray’s government in Maharashtra, a crucial state. It is one among the most industrialised and developed states in the nation and serves as the financial hub of India.
Dramatic politics for 10 days
When Shinde, 58, announced his rebellion against Thackeray and departed Mumbai with 29 other members of the legislative assembly, the political crisis in Maharashtra officially began on the evening of June 20. (MLAs).
The rebels were transported to a five-star hotel in Surat, an industrial city in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, which has been ruled by the BJP since 1995 and is Modi’s home state. Prior to taking office as prime minister in 2014, Modi served as state chief minister for 12 years.
Legislators are frequently relocated to a resort or hotel in India’s so-called “resort politics” to avoid horse trading when a state is experiencing a political crisis.
On June 21, leading Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the revolt was planned by the BJP to topple the Thackeray government. The BJP refuted this assertion as many BJP leaders met with legislators in Surat.
On June 22, the Shiv Sena rebels were flown 2,588 kilometres (1,608 miles) from Surat to Guwahati, the capital of the northeastern state of Assam, another state governed by the BJP.
The state chief minister reportedly paid a visit to the rebels in their hotel room in Guwahati, and a different minister reportedly told reporters that the rebel MLAs were being treated like “state guests.”
On the evening of June 22, Thackeray declared he was prepared to step down as chief minister if the disobedient MPs demanded it. Even as tens of thousands of his admirers marched beside the convoy while chanting his name, he left his official apartment and walked into his personal home.
In Guwahati, the number of Shiv Sena dissidents increased to 39, which was sufficient to fracture the party and assure Thackeray’s ouster. It was time to relocate once more, this time to a state governed by the BJP.
A few independent MLAs joined them when they arrived in Goa two days ago.
In a meeting with Maharashtra’s governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in Mumbai on Tuesday, Fadnavis asserted that the Thackeray administration had lost the majority.
Thackeray stepped down the following day. But in 2019, the groundwork for the current political turmoil in Maharashtra was already laid.
Prasanta Patnaik