With the fall of the Devendra Fadnavis government within three days, the decks have been cleared for the alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to stake claim to form the government.
Hours after the chief minister stepped down on Tuesday, the three parties met and passed a resolution appointing Uddhav Thackeray as the leader of the alliance and their chief ministerial nominee.
The resolution was proposed by NCP state president Jayant Patil and seconded by Congress state president Balasaheb Thorat. This was passed unanimously by all the assembled MLAs.
On Wednesday, a day-long session of the state Assembly session has been convened to administer oath to its 288 newly-elected members. An official statement to this effect was issued Tuesday evening by governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
FE EXPLAINED | What is Protem Speaker?
The governor has appointed BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar, an eight-time MLA, as Pro-tem Speaker of the Assembly. Kolambkar will administer the oath to the MLAs of the BJP (105), Shiv Sena (56), Congress (44), NCP (54) and 29 others representing smaller parties and independents.
The leaders of the Sena, NCP and Congress, who met to elect Uddhav as leader of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, are expected to approach the governor to stake claim to government formation. They are supported by smaller parties, including Samajwadi Party, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Peasants and Workers Party.
The parties also decided to set up a coordination committee to help run the government.
On November 22, the three parties had held their first joint meeting in which they had ratified the name of Uddhav as their chief ministerial candidate.