Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated Devendra Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar after they were sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, in a surprise development.
PM Modi took to Twitter and wrote, "Congratulations to @Dev_FadnavisJi 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."
After taking the oath, Devendra Fadnavis said, "People had given us a clear mandate but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties after results, as a result, President's rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable government and not a 'khichdi' government."
The BJP won 105 seats in the recently concluded assembly elections, while NCP got 54 seats. The BJP-NCP alliance comfortably crosses the halfway mark of 144, sealing the deal for government formation in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, NCP's Ajit Pawar said, "From result day to this day no party was able to form the government, Maharashtra was facing many problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stable government."
Ever since after Maharashtra results, reports were doing the rounds that there will be a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, however, the three parties were working on the common minimum programme but had not reached to any conclusion.
Sources had also revealed that Congress and NCP were wanting Uddhav Thackeray to be the Chief Minister if Sena-NCP-Congress government was formed in the state, however, Saturday came as a surprise when Devendra Fadnavis and Aji Pawar took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy CM.
BJP and Shiv Sena fought the elections together and had a comfortable majority to form the government but the two parties didn't reach any consensus on the '50-50 formula' that led to the break-up of ties.
Shiv Sena has 56 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, way below the half-way mark of 144, it needed both the NCP's 54 and Congress' 44 legislators to reach the magic number.
President's rule was imposed on Maharashtra after no party was able to form the government even 20 days after assembly election results which were declared on October 24.
