Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray will not face Monday’s floor test. He announced his resignation as Maharashtra chief minister with immediate effect on Wednesday evening.
Uddhav’s announcement via a Facebook Live address came shortly after the Supreme Court refused to stay a floor test in the state assembly that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had ordered for June 30 (Thursday).
BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis is likely to be the next CM, as the saffron party will have the required numbers with the help of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs. Eknath Shinde could be appointed as the deputy CM.
Fadnavis was CM from 2014 to 2019.
Blaming MLAs of his own party for the collapse of the government, Uddhav said that ‘bad luck’ had struck his government.
Uddhav lost out in the numbers game as 39 Shiv Sena MLAs deserted him and joined Eknath Shinde camp. The Sena, who had the maximum number of MLAs (55), was thus reduced to 16 while the strength of MVA coalition fell well below the halfway mark of 244.
