'Thackeray to take direct control?' Front pages of national, regional dailies caught unawares as Maharashtra sees major political twist

As one could anticipate a breakthrough in the political stalemate in Maharashtra, in an unexpected twist of events on Saturday morning, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in as the chief minister for the second consecutive term, with NCP’s Ajit Pawar as his deputy chief minister. The development comes as a surprise and a massive jolt to the Shiv Sena after NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday evening asserted that Uddhav Thackeray was the “unanimous” chief minister’s choice. Albeit the leaders of the ideologically opposed merger — Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena — had given vague and unclear statements to the press with respect to government formation until Friday, but the recent formulation of the two parties – BJP and NCP – who pulled an overnight coup of sorts – came as a shocker, with ANI being the first to tweet visuals of Devendra Fadnavis taking oath.

The proverb goes like “anything can happen in politics”, but it was improbable for Saturday’s editorials to predict a massive turnabout of events in the Maharashtra impasse and naturally every national and regional dailies in their front pages headlined the lead story on similar lines “Uddhav Thackeray to take direct control”.

Sharad Pawar seems hellbent on reducing a newspaper's shelf life!! :))) Maharashtra politics can not get more entertaining... pic.twitter.com/O1LfYbU9b9

— Anant Goenka (@anantgoenka) November 23, 2019

The Indian Express  Although a formal announcement on the power-sharing agreement was awaited, the recent allies – NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena – reached a consensus on Friday evening that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be the next chief minister of the state. Lauding the policial heir who has been described as less suave and rather mild than his father Bal Thackeray to head an aggressive cadre-based party like Shiv Sena, The Indian Express said, “Many detractors had misread the 59-year-old Thackeray who managed to trigger a tectonic shift in the Shiv Sena’s political trajectory that even his father could not have imagined in his lifetime”.

Loksatta : An agreement on Uddhav’s name as CM One of the major Maharashtra newspapers Loksatta headlined their front story “An agreement on Uddhav’s name”, where it mentions that NCP chief in the first joint meeting of the leaders of the three parties declared it was a unified decision that Thackeray should lead the Maha front. The article also mentions that Thackeray has accepted the post of chief minister.

Saamana: Uddhav Thackeray ONLY!

Click here to follow Maharashtra government formation LIVE Updates The Times of India The Times of India’s column titled “Will Thackeray Drop Remote, Take Direct Control?” said Uddhav’s promise to his father that “a Sainik would become CM is about to pay off”. The article also mentioned that the classic U-turn in state politics, the Sena shifting from saffron to secular, apart from NCP-Congress bigwigs accepting him as their senior-most leader, the pressure and responsibility on Uddhav now lies beyond Matoshree. Acknowledging Pawar as the state’s most influential politician, the article said, “NCP boss Sharad Pawar’s cautious optimism and ability to bridge political divides stood out as the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena coalition was finally sealed on Friday, underscoring his role as the state’s most influential politician.”

Hindustan Times Not knowing the ideologically divergent alliance partners who would’ve capped nearly a month of political instability on Saturday could be in shambles today, The Hindustan Times had said, “Uddhav will become the first member of the powerful Thackeray family to hold a constitutional position. He is not an MLA and will have to be elected to one of the state’s two Houses within six months of the government being sworn in.”