Uddhav quits as CM after SC allows floor test to go ahead

Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Maharashtra chief minister on Wednesday, minutes after the Supreme Court refused to stall a floor test that his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was set to lose, ending a crisis that erupted last week after dozens of Shiv Sena lawmakers rebelled against his authority.

With the numbers stacked against his government and the apex court allowing the floor test ordered by the governor to go ahead on Thursday at 11am, Thackeray announced his resignation as CM and member of legislative council (MLC) live on social media.

“I had come (to power) in an unexpected manner and I am going out in a similar fashion,” said Thackeray, dressed in a bright yellow kurta. “I am not going away forever, I will be here, and I will once again sit in Shiv Sena Bhawan. I will gather all my people. I am resigning as CM and MLC,” he added.

The dramatic resignation brings down the curtain on the MVA government that came together in 2019 and the focus shifts to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is set to form the next government in the state, likely with the support of 39 rebel Sena lawmakers, led by state urban development minister Eknath Shinde. The exact contours of power sharing remain unclear but people aware of developments said Shinde will likely be sworn in as deputy chief minister with Devendra Fadnavis as the CM.

The BJP’’s imminent return to power in the state is being seen as a victory for former CM Fadnavis, and revenge for the Shiv Sena walking out of a pre-poll alliance with the BJP after the elections in 2019, and forming a government in partnership with its traditional rivals, the Congress and the NCP.

Former minister and BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “the truth prevailed, finally”. “Fadnavis always used to say that he will return to the House. Now, it’s time. He will come back as the chief minister of Maharashtra,” BJP MLA Nitesh Rane said.

The focus also shifts to the battle for the Sena itself, which will likely be played out before the Election Commission. In the Supreme Court on Wednesday, te lawyer for the Shinde faction summed up the group’s view best when referred to as a dissident group. “I am the Shiv Sena,” he said. One key question is the number of MPs of the Shiv Sena supporting the Shinde faction, which numbers 39 of the party’s 55 legislators.

“We are not rebels. All of us are Shiv Sainiks. We will carry forward Bal Thackeray’s agenda and ideology with on Hindutva and development of Maharashtra,” Shinde said at the aiport before leaving for Goa.

Shinde, along with the other rebels, left Guwahati – where they were camping for about a week – and landed at Goa airport at 9.45pm.

A cornered Thackeray resigned after the apex court refused to interfere in governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to call for a floor test on Thursday, a decision taken after his meeting with Fadnavis on Tuesday night. The court said that the floor test could go on but would be subject to the pending disqualification proceedings against 16 rebel MLAs.

“We are not staying the order of the floor test tomorrow. We are only issuing notices on this petition and we are saying that the result of the floor test will be subject to the outcome of the final orders of this court in these proceedings,” said a bench of justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, reading out the operative part of the order.

The order was delivered at 9.10 pm as the bench sat to hear the matter beyond normal working hours, at 5pm, and conducted the proceedings for over three hours. The bench also issued notices to the principal secretary to Koshyari, the state government and the Centre on the petition filed by Sena chief whip Suresh Prabhu, who rushed to the court on Wednesday morning against Koshyari’s order of floor test.

On Monday, the top court had extended the deadline for the lawmakers to respond to the disqualification notice to July 11. After Koshyari ordered a floor test on Wednesday, Prabhu approached the top court.

Clarifying that the result of the floor test shall be subject to the final outcome of the proceedings, the bench asked all parties to file their replies to Prabhu’s petition by July 11 when the petitions by the group of rebel MLAs against the disqualification notices will also be taken up.

The court also allowed jailed ministers Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik to vote in the floor test.

“The question of floor test for MVA government does not arise now,”said former secretary of Maharashtra legislature Anant Kalse.

In his final speech as CM, Thackeray referred to decisions taken earlier in the day in the cabinet meeting and also thanked MVA constituents Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

“I am satisfied that we have officially renamed Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv - the cities named by Balasaheb Thackeray,” he said.

“Thackeray family does not run after power or stick to power. Today, I am giving up the chief minister post. I am not scared but I do not want the Shiv Sainik blood to spill on the road tomorrow... I am also resigning as the member of the legislative council,” Thackeray announced in an address to the state via social media.

“I came unexpectedly and going similarly. I am not going anywhere; I will meet Shiv Sainiks at Sena Bhavan and rebuild the party with new blood. The Shiv Sena will remain the same and nobody can take it away from us... Shiv Sena has faced several challenges and will deal with many more in the future,” he added.

Thackeray, who took charge on November 28, 2019, after a major shift in the political dynamic, said that it was his “sin” to have trusted the party colleagues. “If the good deed of pulling down the son of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray is coming to their credit, so be it. But keeping trust in them was my sin. Tomorrow, they will roam around the villages of the state boasting that they brought down Shiv Sena supremo’s son.”

Thackeray also took jibes at Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari in his address saying he upheld the democracy by acting swiftly after a delegation led by opposition leader Devendra Fadnvais met him on Tuesday evening. “The supreme court gave its verdict on the floor test... I want to thank the governor, who upheld the democracy by asking us to hold a floor test 24 hours after a delegation met him,” he said.

The Sena chief added that the Central forces were deployed to prevent Shiv Sainiks from protesting. However, he asked his party workers not to stop the rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde. “Central forces are being deployed in Mumbai. It seems that army on Indo-China border will be deployed here,” he said, and further added, “I am telling Shiv Sainiks to let them come because tomorrow a new democracy is taking birth. No Shiv Sainik must come in their way... In a democracy, heads are counted to show numbers and the majority. I am not interested in that. I don’t want to play these games.”

Focus will now be trained on the MVA, an unlikely alliance that came together to pip the BJP to the post after the 2019 assembly elections.

The turmoil began last week, hours after the MVA suffered a setback in the legislative council election, when Shinde and his loyalists set off for Surat, and later Guwahati. As days passed, the rebel ranks swelled even as an increasingly desperate Sena appealed to deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal to disqualify 16 lawmakers. Those efforts came undone on Monday as the Supreme Court protected the rebels from disqualification proceedings till July 11, giving the dissidents a breather. Several appeals by Thackeray and Pawar were also unsuccessful.

On Wednesday morning, the bench agreed to hear Prabhu’s petition, observing, “Considering the urgency that has been created, we will have to hear the case today itself. We will not fail in our duty.”

The hearing commenced at 5 pm as senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Prabhu, attacked the governor for trying to bypass the court order by ordering a floor test when the issue relating to disqualification of dissident MLAs was still pending.

Singhvi said that the governor’s direction was like putting the cart before the horse where the rebel MLAs who have already incurred disqualification for anti-party activities shall be allowed to vote while the deputy speaker’s hands are tied. “Those who think that a governor cannot be political and only the Speaker can be political need to wake up and smell the coffee. They should not live in ivory towers. It will be a constitutional sin to allow the floor test within 24 hours,” said Singhvi, imploring the bench to postpone the floor test by a week or allow the deputy speaker to decide the disqualification complaints against the Shinde faction.

But the court asked Singhvi a more basic question: “Are you disputing that 34 MLAs, whose signatures were also there, did not actually write to the governor (expressing no confidence in the Uddhav government)? In your petition, have you ever said that any of these MLAs have denied signing such a letter?”

Singhvi responded that it was for Koshyari to verify such details but the bench was unimpressed with the answer. “Why should we ask the governor to have this subjective satisfaction? Our limited understanding of the previous judgments of this court is that these issues cannot be left to the subjective satisfaction of the governor. The floor of the House is the only forum where such issues can be settled,” emphasised the bench.

Representing the Shinde camp, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul claimed that they are a group of 39 MLAs, as opposed to 16 in the Uddhav faction, and thus, the real Shiv Sena. “They are in a hopeless minority in the party itself, let alone the House. They want to somehow cling on to power. I have seen parties rushing to this court for a floor test as soon as possible but here, we have a party trying to delay it. Every one knows why,” Kaul added.

The more delay you cause to the floor test, greater is the damage to the democratic polity, said Kaul, contending all the previous judgments relating to floor tests in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have unequivocally held that floor test is the litmus test of majority in a democracy and that it should brook no delay.

Appearing for Koshyari, solicitor general Tushar Mehta asserted that the order of floor test was based on germane considerations. “It would have been a dereliction of duty on the part of a governor not to ask for a floor test in circumstances like this. The governor, in totality, is satisfied that the floor test is mandatory since the real source of power in a democracy is the majority on the floor of the House,” underlined the SG.

The arguments wrapped up at 8.25 pm, and the bench rose for around half an hour to come back at 9 pm to declare that it had turned down the plea for staying the floor test.