Devendra Fadnavis’ second tenure as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has turned out to be one of the shortest in Indian history. Only Harish Rawat of Uttarakhand, Jagdambika Pal of Uttar Pradesh and B.S. Yediyurappa of Karnataka have served shorter terms.
Mr. Fadnavis tendered his resignation on Tuesday, November 26, evening, hours after the Supreme Court asked the BJP government to prove its majority in Maharashtra Assembly tomorrow. Mr. Fadnavis failed to reach the magic figure of 145 — the number of MLAs required to support him to win the confidence motion.
In May last year, Mr. Yediyurappa too met a similar fate. The 75-year-old BJP leader was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka on May 17. He resigned before facing a Supreme Court-mandated floor test on May 19.
The chart shows the Chief Ministers in India who served for less than 100 days.
How to read the chart
Each circle represents a Chief Minister who served for less than 100 days. The size of the circle reflects the number of days in power. Bigger the circle, more the number of days served as CM.
Incidentally, Mr. Yediyurappa had to resign as the Chief Minister of Karnataka after just eight days in 2007.
However, the distinction of shortest tenure as a Chief Minister goes to Harish Rawat of Uttarakhand. He took oath of office on April 21, 2016 after the Uttarakhand High Court revoked President's rule in the state. However, the very next day the Supreme Court reinstated President's rule Rawat's tenure came to an end.
Jagdambika Pal served as Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister for two days in 1998. After the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh was dismissed, Pal was sworn in as the Chief Minister late at night on February 21, a decision that was reversed by the High Court the next morning.
In 2016, Arunachal Pradesh had three Chief Ministers. Of them Nabam Tuki of Congress had the shortest tenure — four days (July 13-17). He was succeeded by Pema Khandu of his own party, following dissidence within Congress. Within a month Mr. Khandu and his flock of supporting MLAs joined People's Party of Arunachal and then to the BJP. Mr. Khandu is still the Chief Minister of the State.
Bihar's Satish Prasad Singh of Congress served as the Chief Minister for just four days in 1968 — January 28 to February 1. B.P. Mandal, who succeeded Mr. Singh held the post for just 31 days.
In Haryana, Om Prakash Chautala had served as the Chief Minister for a period of five days in July 1990 and for 14 days in 1991.
After the demise of M G Ramachandran — the founder of the AIADMK — in Tamil Nadu, his widow Janaki Ramachandran had a brief tenure of 23 days as the Chief Minister in January 1988.
In Kerala, the tenure of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader C.H. Mohammad Koya, the only Muslim Chief Minister of the State, lasted for 50 days in 1979.
Published - November 26, 2019 05:06 pm IST
