Story so far: The two coalitions eyeing to form the next government in Maharashtra – Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi – have not projected any Chief Ministerial candidate, instead focusing on schemes and achievements. Throughout history, Maharashtra has seen 14 State elections and 20 CMs, some with multiple terms. Only two of these have completed full terms – Vasantrao Naik, the State’s longest serving CM (11 years, 78 days) and Devendra Fadnavis, whose second stint was the shortest in the State (3 days).
In the first thirty years of the State’s politics since its creation in 1960, it was Congress which ruled Maharashtra with an undivided majority. In 1995 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena came to power, forming the first non-Congress government in the State. In the subsequent elections, Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar split Congress’ votes by creating the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999. However, the NCP-Congress combination ruled the state till 2014, when the BJP-Sena once swept to power.
Here’s a look at the change of CMs in the Congress and coalition years.
Congress years (1960-1995)
Maharashtra was forged in the heat of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and the Maha Gujarat movement in 1960, demanding two independent states on linguistic basis. The erstwhile Bombay state was then reorganised to form two states – Maharashtra and Gujarat and Mr. Yashwantrao (Y.B.) Chavan chosen as Maharashtra’s first CM. In the subsequent election (1962), then-PM Jawaharlal Nehru chose to elevate Mr. Chavan as Union Defence Minister during the India-China war, replacing him with Marotrao Kannamwar. Unfortunately, due to his untimely demise in 1963, Mr. Kannamwar’s term was completed by Vasantrao Naik.
In 1967, Mr. Naik was re-elected and he completed a full term till 1972, when he was elected for a third time. He remained CM till 1975, when he was replaced with then-PM Indira Gandhi’s loyalist Shankarrao (S.B) Chavan during the imposition of Emergency.
Upon lifting Emergency, Congress lost power for the first time in the Centre and Mr. S.B. Chavan resigned in the wake of the party’s poor performance in Maharashtra (it won only 20 of 48 Lok Sabha seats). He was replaced by his popular colleague, irrigation minister Vasantdada Patil – known as the State’s first Maratha strongman. However, the Congress itself was going through a churn in the wake of its defeat, leading to two formation of two factions - Congress (U) and Congress (I).
In the 1978 elections, the two factions fought separately and won 69 and 62 seats respectively. The Janata Party, which had emerged as the largest party winning 99 of 288 seats, was kept out of power by the two Congresses which joined hands, retaining Mr. Patil as the CM. However, his term was cut short by 38-year-old Sharad Pawar, who split away from Congress (U) to form the Indian National Congress (Socialist) – Congress (S), taking away 68 other Congress MLAs. Miffed at the constant selection of non-Maratha CMs by Ms. Gandhi in the State, Mr. Pawar allied with the Janata Party and the Left-backed Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWPI) to form the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) government, forming the government and becoming the State’s youngest CM.
However, Mr. Pawar’s first stint as CM was cut short as Ms. Gandhi returned to power in the Centre in 1980 and dismissed his government, putting the State under President’s rule for the first time. In the fresh elections held in 1980, Congress (I) once again returned to power in Maharashtra winning 186 of 288 seats and Mr. Abdul Rehman (A.R.) Antulay was chosen as CM, the first Muslim to hold the top post. Mr. Antulay’s term last for two years before he was forced to resign after being convicted in an extortion case by the Bombay High Court.
Between 1980 and 1995, the state went through three elections and eight Chief Ministers with Mr. Pawar holding the post twice. Mr. Antulay’s full term was split between himself (2 years), Babasaheb Bhosale (1 year) and Vasantdada Patil (2 years). After Congress(I) was re-elected in 1985, Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar was chosen as CM and he lasted two years before resigning due to strictures passed against him by the HC in connection to a medical exam results scam. Mr. S.B. Chavan once again served as a placeholder till 1988 when he was replaced with Sharad Pawar, who had by then returned to Congress and was tasked with checking a rising Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. The new Maratha strongman steered the Congress to victory in 1990, winning 141 seats and forming a government with 12 independents, ushering in his third term as CM.
Ambition got the better of Mr. Pawar as he unsuccessfully launched a bid to become Prime Minister in 1991 after Congress won the elections and its candidate Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. While the Congress chose Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao as both party chief and its PM pick, Mr. Pawar objected to it, reminding the party’s ‘one man one post’ principle. Snubbed for the top post, Mr. Pawar was given the Defence portfolio and Sudhakkarrao Naik was chosen to take over as Maharashtra CM.
In the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, communal riots rocked Mumbai, with a charged Shiv Sena baying for blood. To calm down the city, Mr. Pawar took charge as CM for a third time in 1993 and was immediately faced with handling twelve explosions across the city, killing over 250. Mr. Pawar’s handling of the critical situation has been controversial since he wilfully misled the public claiming thirteen bombings occurred, including one in a Muslim locality, and raised allegations of the Tamil militant group LTTE’s involvement.
1995-1999: Rise of Shiv Sena
Ending Congress’ 35-year run in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena-BJP combination — Mahayuti — emerged victorious in 1995 winning 138 seats and ushering in the first non-Congress government in the State. Choosing Manohar Joshi as CM, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray ruled the tSate as the ‘remote control CM’. Mr. Joshi was replaced with Thackeray loyalist and Konkan strongman Narayan Rane in 1999, as the incumbent CM was mired in an alleged land scam.
1999-2014: Rise of NCP
In the run up to the 1999 state elections, Mr. Pawar had already split away from the Congress to form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Baramati politician had run afoul of Congress’ top leadership after he opposed Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s candidacy for Prime Ministership. After eating into Congress’ votes in the Lok Sabha polls, NCP played spoiler in the Assembly polls by depriving both the Sena-BJP and the Congress of a majority. A Congress-NCP alliance ‘Maha Aghadi’ was struck and Congress’ Vilasrao Deshmukh was chosen as CM.
Mr. Deshmukh lasted three years before he was made to resign after Congress decided to revamp all its State heads in 2003. Dalit leader Sushil Kumar Shinde was chosen as a placeholder CM before the State went polls in 2004. Bucking anti-incumbency, the Congress-NCP combine was re-elected and Mr. Deshmukh was back in the top post. However, his second stint was cut short in 2008 as he stepped down in the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.
Just like his father, Ashok Chavan – former CM S.B. Chavan’s son, was chosen as a placeholder CM till the 2009 State polls. When the Maha Aghadi returned for a third time, Congress chose to repose faith in Mr. Chavan and retained him as CM. His second stint ended in 2012 when he and many other politicians, bureaucrats and military officials were embroiled in the Adarsh Society Housing scam. After his resignation, Congress chose its ‘clean’ Delhi-based politician Prithviraj Chavan to lead Maharashtra.
2014 onwards: Rise of BJP
Congress’ second prolonged stint in Maharashtra came to an abrupt end in 2014. Swept in the Modi wave, Maharashtra overwhelmingly favoured the BJP, awarding it 122 seats. Sena, which had opted to fight the polls alone, was forced to ally with the BJP again to usher in Devendra Fadnavis’ first term as CM. While the two allies bickered throughout his term, Mr. Fadnaviscompleted his full term – only the second CM to do so.
In 2019, when the Sena-BJP was voted back to power, the two allies parted ways again over equal distribution of portfolios and sharing the CM tenure. As Sena began talking with arch rivals Congress-NCP to form a coalition government, Mr. Fadnavis cobbled up an alliance with NCP leader Ajit Pawar and hurriedly took oath as CM. Within three days, Mr. Fadnavis’ government fell as the rebel Pawar withdrew his support.
Finally, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, with the support of Congress and NCP staked his claim and took oath as CM, becoming Sena’s second CM. However, his term was also cut short in 2022 when senior Sena MLA Eknath Shinde rebelled against Mr. Thackeray, taking away 38 of the party’s 56 legislators. Though Mr. Shinde is the incumbent CM and leads the Shiv Sena now, the Mahayuti has not projected him as their CM face in the upcoming elections.
Published - October 30, 2024 04:31 pm IST