President's Rule Revoked In Maharashtra

In an overnight development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

President's Rule was on Saturday revoked in Maharashtra following the formation of a new government in the state.

New Delhi: President's Rule was on Saturday revoked in Maharashtra following the formation of a new government in the state. "In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (2) of Article 356 of the Constitution I, Ram Nath Kovind, President of India hereby revoke the proclamation issued by me under the said article on the 12th day of November, 2019, in relation to the state of Maharashtra with effect from the 23rd day of November, 2019," President Ram Nath Kovind said in a gazette notification. In an overnight development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The oath was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to Fadnavis and Pawar at Raj Bhawan.

The notification revoking President's rule in Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/JSbAIOFUE6

— ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2019

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday. Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of the alliance government. The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in last month's assembly elections, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.

Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by Koshyari. The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state. The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.