NEW DELHI: As Maharashtra got a new chief minister on Thursday evening with Eknath Shinde, the leader of the rebel faction of the Shiv Sena, taking oath of office, it became the second state after Bihar where the BJP does not have its CM despite the party having more MLAs than its alliance partner. However, the power equations may change after the next assembly elections in both states.
Ever since it became clear that Shinde had taken away at least 37 MLAs – two-thirds of the Shiv Sena’s total 55 legislators – to decisively escape the anti-defection law under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, it was evident that the days of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with Uddhav Thackeray as CM were numbered.
