Second time Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, resigned ahead of a trust vote that his party had to undergo as a result of an order passed by the Supreme Court. He served for exactly three and a half days in this stint. A short one that was full of political upheavals and drama.
He isn’t the only one though. There are other CM’s in Maharashtra and across the country who have had short tenures of less than one year. Here’s the list from the state of Maharashtra-
1. PK Sawant – He was the state Home Minister and served under his predecessor Marotrao Kannamwar who passed away in office in the year 1963. He was briefly replaced by PK Sawant who served for a period of 10 days from 25th November, 1963 to 4th December 1963. Sawant was subsequently replaced by Vasantrao Naik as the Chief Minister.
2. Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar replaced Vasantdada Patil in the year 1985. His tenure lasted for a total period of 277 days from 3rd June, 1985 to 6th March, 1986. He had to be replaced after the Bombay High Court passed strictures against him in a scam related to medical exam results.
3. Narayan Rane replaced Manohar Joshi who was the Chief Minister of the Shiv Sena-BJP government from 1994-1999, after he resigned following a land scam. Narayan Rane replaced him for a period of 258 days from 1st February, 1999 to 17th October 1999. He was eventually succeeded by Vilasrao Deshmukh.
4. Devendra Fadnavis finished his term and was reappointed by the Governor on November 23rd. He was given a week to prove his majority on the floor of the house. The Supreme Court intervened and asked him to prove his majority on the floor of the house on November 27th. But he resigned before that. He is currently the caretaker Chief Minister.
In other states, some of the Chief Ministers with short tenures include:
1. Nitish Kumar in Bihar for a period of eight days ( 3rd-10th March, 2000)
2. Om Prakash Chautala in Haryana for a period of six days ( 12th-17th July 1990)
3. BS Yeddyurappa in Karnataka served two short tenures from [(17th-19th May, 2018 – 55 hours) and (12th-19th November, 2007- 8 days)
4. SC Marak in Meghalaya for a period of 12 days (27th February- 10th March 1998)
5. Jagadambika Pal from Uttar Pradesh for a period of 3 days (21st- 23rd February 1998)
Unstable governments and fractured electoral mandates are a threat to the Indian democracy and acts of horse trading and bribery can be considered to be a betrayal of the people. In recent times, electoral results have started indicating a clear mandate to the parties and this is a good sign for the Indian democracy.