File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah at the BJP parliamentary board meeting in New Delhi, July 28, 2015. (Subhav Shukla | PTI)

Just when everyone believed that the politically significant state of Maharashtra was readying to witness the formation of the state government by Maha Vikasa Aghadi, a tripartite alliance of the Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena and the Sonia Gandhi headed Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stole the show with the letter of support of 54 rebel NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar. Priyanka Bhardwaj reports.

With the swearing-in of BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister (CM), for the second time, and Ajit Pawar as the Deputy CM on the morning of November 23rd, a political impasse that had engulfed the state since October end when the poll-results had yielded a fractured mandate, BJP accomplishing 105 seats, and the Shiv Sena NCP and INC managing 56, 54 and 44 seats respectively, in a house of 288 seats, has “temporarily ended”.

On mild prodding, BJP insiders claim that Fadnavis is confident of providing a stable government with the support of close to 170 MLAs, citing the count of independents also.

The coup of sorts that obviously occurred in utmost secrecy was justified by Union Minister of Law, Ravi Shankar Prasad, who reasoned that the state Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari revoked President’s Rule In Maharashtra at 5:47 am for facilitating the swearing-in of the CM, via the invocation of Article 74 for revocation of Rule 12 that allowed for the Cabinet to be bypassed citing conditions of “extreme urgency” in view of the inability of the tripartite at forming a government despite multiple but inconclusive parleys, ensuing for more than three weeks, to thrash out a Common Minimum Program and jeopardizing the concerns of the people particularly the distressed farmers.

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That the BJP had outsmarted the tripartite alliance and Udhhav Thackeray’s aggressive intentions of being anointed the CM would perhaps remain in the realm of imagination when Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted at about 8am, “Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra.”

Stunned into silence during the initial hours of the day, the three parties gathered their wits to launch a legal offensive by filing a write petition under Article 32 of the Constitution and seeking an immediate hearing, “in grave urgency seeking reliefs” against “arbitrary and mala fide actions” of Governor for “installing a minority BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis”.

But with the Chief Justice of India not in town the hearing is to take place before the noon of Sunday.

As for the experts, there is debate over the effectiveness and timing of the application of the oft long drawn out anti-defection law that necessitates intimation of defection to an elected speaker after the MLAs have been sworn in and a floor test has been conducted, followed by taking the plea to the Election Commission that adjudicates on the number of defectors.

Only if two-thirds of 54 MLAs desert the party have defected that they can be designated as disqualified and this would throws up more issues as to how many MLAs would decide the quorum for government formation.

As per some observers there hangs a haze over what may have transpired between Sharad Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who met a few days back to discuss “rain hit farmers” in New Delhi and if the sword of irrigation scam, hanging on the head of Ajit Pawar and NCP, served to pressurize NCP leaders into yielding to the BJP.

Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue, Katraj, Pune, Maharashtra

As matters stand the saga is a developing one, as every passing moment is throwing up interesting and intriguing twists and turns – emerging reports suggest almost seven of the ten to eleven MLAs who attended the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhawan in the morning have expressed full faith in Sharad Pawar’s leadership and attended the NCP huddle the YB Chavan centre, while some reports point out to the absence of 17 MLAs of NCP from the huddle.

Even as senior Pawar claims that his nephew misused the letter of support that was originally being prepared for the tripartite’s government formation, he has opted to leave his window of maneuverability open, but not without revoking Ajit Pawar’s right to issue a party whip and replacing him from the position of vidhayak or legislature party leader by Dilip Walse Patil who tried in vain to woo back Ajit into the family and party fold.

As the night progresses and the INC are flying their MLAs to Jaipur, Shiv Sena have cordoned off its own leaders in a Mumbai Hotel and the NCP has taken its MLAs to Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai, to guard against poaching, one cannot help reminisce similar confounding drama staged by Sharad Pawar at various points in his life and one which also enabled him found his own NCP, the 2007 Karnataka episode, when Kuamaraswamy led his rebel group within the Janata Dal (S)to break away from his father HD Deve Gowda’s government to form his government, with himself as the CM, and in 2009 when Haryana Janahit Congress legislators defected to the Congress leaving their leader Kuldeep Bishnoi all by himself.

But topping all in the history of infamous cross floor voting has been the infamous Haryana model of “Aya Ram-Gaya Ram”, the most popular being that of Bhajan Lal who toppled Devi Lal’s government with a slim margin and again a year later roped in 40 MLAs into the Congress (I) camp, for which he was rewarded with the CM’s post.