The Maharashtra Standoff
After the petition filed by Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, the judgement of Supreme Court were reserved today, posting the announcement to be done tomorrow at 10:30 AM. It was posted before a bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana. The petition was filed on two grounds, one questioning the Koshiyari, the governor of Maharashtra to administer the swearing-in the Devendra Fadnavis, from the Bhartiya Janta Party [BJP] as the Chief Minister of the state. The second ground is to immediately order for a floor test, as the BJP is apprehended to turn the results in the floor test to their favour in a mala fide manner. The petition alleges the decision of the governor to be ‘arbitrary and malafide’. During the hearing on Sunday, the bench deposed that in lieu of Article 361 of the Constitution of India, the decisions of the governor of any state lies beyond the scope of judicial review. However, it issued notices to produce the letter of supports to decide the matter of granting a quick floor test. The NCP and Congress were represented in the Supreme Court by Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi. They said if the alliance of BJP-NCP has the majority as claimed, then why to shy away from the floor test.
The sudden government formation came just a day after Sharad Pawar announced a day earlier that Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress had come to an agreement and is likely to form the government in Maharashtra, with Uddhav Thackrey as the chief minister of the state for the next five years. However, Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Sharad Pawar, supported BJP and showed letters of support. Based on these letters of support, Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister in at 08 AM on Saturday. Hurriedly, in initially saw the revocation of president’s rule in the state at 05:47 in the morning. This was followed by Ajit Pawar being sacked as the NCP legislature party leader, to which effect Sharad Pawar tweeted saying ‘he was out on his own’.
Since then for the past two days, there has been confusion over the exact number of MLAs who are supporting the swearing-in of Ajit Pawar as the Deputy CM of the state under Devendra Fadnavis. After that, it was reported that at least seven legislators claimed to have returned to the party fold and pledged their loyalty to Sharad Pawar. Few legislators, like Dilip Bankar and Manikrao Kokate, have tweeted later that they were kept in the dark about the oath-taking ceremony and thus withdrew support. Similarly, five other MLAs Rajendra Shingne (Buldhana), Sandeep Kshirsagar (Beed)m Sunil Shelke (Maval), Sunil Bhusara (Vikramgad), Narhari Zirwal (Dindori) and Sunil Tingre (Wagon-Sheri) folded back to the NCP after attending the oath-taking ceremony. Kokate from Sinnar seat, in his tweet tagging Sharad Pawar and MP Supriya Sule has said
“I have not gone against the party’s (NCP)position. I reached Raj Bhavan after Ajitdada Pawar told me so. Followed order as he is legislature party leader. I had no clue what was going to happen there. I am with the party. I will never change the decision once taken.”
On the said matter, Shara Pawar had stated that by being the NCP legislative party leader, Ajit had the names, signatures and constituencies for internal party use of all 54 MLAs. He said the governor has been ‘misled’ with that list being shown as the letter of support.
‘We are 162′, unprecedented show of strength.
In an unprecedented manner of a show of strength, with banners reading ‘We are 162’ and the Constitution, the MLAs of the three parties- Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress pledged loyalty to the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai on Monday. In what is now being mocked as a ‘political fashion show’, it was a show of strength that has morally bound the BJP from all ends. The oath read:
“I will be honest to my party; will not get lured by anything. I will not do anything that will benefit the BJP. I will not get involved in any anti-party activities,”
The three parties, along with a clear majority of MLAs, have come together to show their strength, against the oddly formed government in Maharashtra. While the pledge taking ceremony was ongoing, the supporters of these parties outside the venue were shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
