Journalism of Courage
The BJP sprang a surprise in Maharashtra Thursday by letting Eknath Shinde, the leader of rebel Shiv Sena faction, take over as the Chief Minister, with its senior leader and ex-CM Devendra Fadnavis getting sworn in as the Deputy CM.
However, it is not the first time that the senior partner in a ruling coalition — in this case the BJP, the single largest party, with 106 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly — has given up the CM’s post in favour of its junior ally — the breakaway Sena group in this case, which claims to have 39 MLAs so far. Here is a look at several such instances from the past:
Karnataka, 2018
In May 2018 Assembly polls in Karnataka, which threw up a fractured verdict, the Congress won 78 MLAs and the Janata Dal (Secular) got 37. The BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 104 seats, but its leader B S Yediurappa could not muster the required numbers to cross the halfway mark. He resigned barely 55 hours after he was sworn in as the CM. The Congress joined hands with the JD(S) and let its leader H D Kumaraswamy become the CM. G Parameshwara, the state Congress chief and the party’s Dalit face, was sworn in as the Deputy CM.
Bihar, 2020
The 2020 Bihar Assembly elections saw the BJP winning 74 seats, the JD(U) 43 and other NDA allies, VIP and HAM(S), getting four seats each. The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)’s tally, which was 71 in 2015 polls, was its worst since the 2005 Assembly elections. However, despite the JD(U) becoming its junior partner, the BJP let Nitish take oath as the Bihar CM for the fourth straight term. Two BJP leaders – Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi – were sworn in as the Deputy CMs.
Bihar, 2015
The JD(U), RJD and Congress had forged a “grand alliance” for contesting the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015. In the polls the JD(U) won 71 seats while the RJD and the Congress got 80 and 27 seats, respectively. The BJP garnered 53 seats. The Lalu Prasad-led RJD left the CM’s chair for junior partner Nitish, who took the reins with Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, Lalu’s younger son, becoming the Deputy CM.
Jharkhand, 2006
In the 2005 Assembly elections in Jharkhand, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 30 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand House. The Shibu Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won 17 seats, the Congress nine, the RJD seven and the JD(U) six. The Forward Bloc won 2 seats while the NCP got one. There were also three independent MLAs.
In September 2006, the then BJP government led by Arjun Munda fell ahead of a trust vote as it lost the majority after the three independents — Madhu Koda, Enos Ekka and Harinarain Rai — withdrew their support to it. Subsequently, the Congress-led UPA including the JMM, RJD and other parties propped up Koda as the CM.
