The sudden turn of events stung the Sena-NCP-Congress combine that had agreed to form a coalition government and install Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister.
The Supreme Court opened on Sunday to hear a petition by Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP alliance which sought direction to hold immediate floor test in Maharashtra, a day after an early morning swearing-in ceremony was held in Mumbai.
Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra chief minister along with NCP's Ajit Pawar who was sworn in as state's deputy chief minister after the President's rule was lifted at 5:47 am in the morning on Saturday.
Refusing interim relief to the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress combine to direct the Fadnavis government to undertake floor test within 24 hours, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to place before it on Monday morning the letters of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari inviting Fadnavis and of the BJP staking his claim to form the government in the state.
The sudden turn of events stung the Sena-NCP-Congress combine that had agreed to form a coalition government and install Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister. The event came as a bigger shock to NCP chief Sharad Pawar as his nephew Ajit Pawar extended support to the BJP, claiming that he was acting as the legislature party leader.
While the NCP claimed that Pawar acted on his own and had the support of only a handful of MLAs who had been tricked into attending the swearing-in ceremony the deputy CM said he was representing his party. Pawar has since been removed as the legislature party leader.
The political drama moved to the apex court in Delhi on Sunday as a three-judge bench sat on a weekend to hear the plea filed by the three parties. A bench of Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjeev Khanna issued notices to the Centre and Maharashtra government and asked for two letters.
The bench will again sit at 10:30 am to hear the matter further. If the apex court delivers its judgment in the case on Monday and fixes a date for the floor test, Fadnavis will have to prove his majority on the floor of the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
Meanwhile, Sena, NCP and the Congress have put up their MLAs in separate hotels in order to guard them against alleged poaching attempts by the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led faction. NCP has claimed that only four of its 54 MLAs (including Mr Pawar) are with the BJP and even they are in constant touch with the party.
On Sunday, Ajit Pawar claimed he was still in the NCP and pledged allegiance to Sharad Pawar.
"I am in the NCP and shall always be in the NCP and @PawarSpeaks Saheb is our leader. Our BJP-NCP alliance shall provide a stable Government in Maharashtra for the next five years which will work sincerely for the welfare of the State and its people," Ajit Pawar, who was removed by the party as legislature party leader.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar countered Ajit, saying that his statement was false and misleading.
"There is no question of forming an alliance with @BJP4Maharashtra. NCP has unanimously decided to ally with @ShivSena & @INCMaharashtra to form the government. Shri Ajit Pawar’s statement is false and misleading in order to create confusion and false perception among the people," he said.
In the 288-member Assembly, the BJP is the single-largest party with 105 MLAs while by Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress party have 56, 54 and 44 seats, respectively.
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