Less than an hour after the Supreme Court refused to stay the confidence vote that he had been ordered to take on the floor of Assembly on Thursday by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Maharashtra Chief Minister Udddhav Thackeray on Wednesday night announced his resignation both as the CM and as an MLC, and said he would continue to work for the Shiv Sena.
“I am not interested in seeking a trust vote tomorrow. Let them (the rebel MLAs) take credit for bringing down the son of Balasaheb Thackeray. I do not want to take away that happiness from you... I will henceforth sit in the Shiv Sena Bhavan ( Party headquarters). You cannot snatch away the Shiv Sena from me,” Uddhav said, while addressing the people across the State live on Facebook.
Later in the night, Uddhav drove to Raj Bhavan at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai from his private residence “Matoshri” at Bandra in north-central Mumbai and formally handed over the resignation to the Governor.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari accepted the resignation and asked him to officiate as Chief Minister until alternate arrangement is made, Raj Bhavan sources said.
Uddhav drove himself in a Mercedes to the Raj Bhavan, accompanied by his sons Aaditya and Tejas as well as Shiv Sena leaders Neelam Gorhe and Arvind Sawant and others. Shiv Sena workers accompanying him shouted slogans at his convoy reached the Raj Bhavan.
Uddhav — who assumed office as the Chief Minister on November 28, 2019 in his capacity as the head of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government comprising the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress — had on the second day of rebellion within his party said he was prepared to quit both his posts as the CM and the party chief, if the rebels were to meet him and express their lack of confidence in his leadership.
Uddhav’s resignation came at the end of nine-day-long drama that saw his senior minister Eknath Shinde — apparently working in tandem with the Opposition BJP — move along with 30-odd Sena MLAs out of Mumbai to land at a Surat Hotel, from where he flew them to Guwahati where more Sena MLAs joined the rebel MLAs at another five star hotel. The rebel group’s strength swelled to 39 when they flew from Guwahati to Goa on Wednesday night en route to Mumbai.
In his brief speech where he did not hide his disappointment over the manner in which he party MLAs betrayed him leading to the fall of his Government, Uddhav said: “There were only four Sena ministers in the State Cabinet meeting today. I would like to thank Sharad Pawar sahib and Sonia Gandhi ji for the support extended to my government. At today’s meeting, the NCP and Congress ministers did not oppose the proposal of renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad. The people who ought to have supported were nowhere around and those from whom I expected opposition, supported me.”
Uddhav welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision refusing to intervene in the Governor’s decision ordering him to take a vote of trust on the floor of the Assembly on Thursday.
Paying a backhanded compliment to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for the “extraordinary hurry and diligence shown” by him to act on a letter submitted by the Opposition seeking floor test by me, Uddhav said: “Less than 24 hours after the BJP made a request to him that I be asked to seek confidence on the floor of Assembly, the Governor ordered me to prove my majority on the floor of the House. How I wish the Governor had shown democratic practice and due diligence in acting on our Cabinet’s recommendation seeking nomination of 12 prominent persons from the Governor’s quota.”
Later, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said Maharashtra has lost a sensible and cultured Chief Minister in Uddhav Thackeray.