History of President's rule in Maharashtra

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Maharashtra came under the President's rule on Tuesday (November 12) after none of the leading political parties in the state managed to cobble an alliance to form a government. In the October 21 assembly election, whose results were declared on October 24, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 105 seats, followed by the Shiv Sena 56, the NCP 54 and the Congress 44.This is third time that Maharashtra has come under the central rule. The present-day Maharashtra came into existence on May 1, 1960.

The first President rule was imposed in February 1980 when Indira Gandhi government dismissed the Progressice Democratic Front (PDF) government by Sharad Pawar.

Assembly election held in June that year saw the Congress returning to power in the state and A.R. Antulay becoming the chief minister. Pawar was the chief minister from 1978 to 1980. He had formed the PDF after toppling the Vasantdada Patil-led Congress government in 1978. Pawar was a minister in the Patil government. Gandhi dismissed the PDF government after returning to power at the Centre in the 1980 Lok Sabha polls.

After 34 years, the state saw the second spell of President's rule in 2014.

President's rule was imposed after Prithviraj Chavan resigned as chief minister following withdrawal of support by ally NCP to the Congress-led government on September 28, 2014. The 2014 assembly election was held when the state was under President's rule. After the assembly election of October 2014, the BJP came to power under Devendra Fadnavis.

However, it is Indira Gandhi who had the most number of President rule in her tenures. The Congress PM was in power from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 to October 1984. A total of 50 times President’s rule was imposed under her tenure.

The first non-Congress Prime Minister Morarji Desai follows Gandhi with President’s rule 16 times.

12 times President’s rule was imposed in the 10-year period of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

President’s rule has been imposed under P.V Narsimha Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Charan Singh, Chandrasekhar and VP Singh for 11, 8, 6, 4, 5, 5 and 2 times respectively.

President’s rule was imposed once under Lal Bahadur Shastri and HD Deve Gowda.

(With PTI inputs)

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