From Bihar to Karnataka to MP to Maharashtra: Political turbulence & change of power

New Delhi | Guwahati: The alleged attempt to topple the Gehlot government in Rajasthan is a déjà vu moment for Congress and political observers. The party went through a similar experience in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, with BJP firmly back in the saddle. Here’s a list of states which have witnessed more than one chief minister in their current assembly term due to political turbulence:

MADHYA PRADESH
After 15 years, Congress formed a government under the leadership of Kamal Nath, with 115 seats in 230-seat assembly. In March this year, 22 Congress MLAs resigned to join BJP. Nath resigned before the trust vote, paving the way for BJP to form government again. Till date, 24 Congress MLAs have joined BJP.


MAHARASHTRA
BJP and Shiv Sena together won 161 seats, enough to form government. However, the alliance broke over the post of CM and President’s rule was imposed in November. In a dramatic turn of events, Devendra Fadnavis took oath as CM along with NCP’s Ajit Pawar as his deputy. After a lot of drama, Fadnavis resigned as CM on November 26 and Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray became the CM of Sena-NCP-Congress government on November 28.

KARNATAKA
In May 2018, BJP emerged as the largest party, with 105 seats in the 225-member assembly. The party was still short of majority. BS Yediyurappa was sworn in as the CM. However, Congress with 78 and JDS with 34 seats came together and Yediyurappa had to resign before the trust vote. HD Kumaraswamy of JDS became the CM. In July 2019, 17 Congress and JDS MLAs resigned which brought the government to a minority. Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote and once again Yediyurappa became the CM. All the 17 MLAs have joined BJP and currently BJP has 118 MLAs after the bypolls.

BIHAR
In 2015, the RJD-JDU-Congress alliance won the assembly elections and Nitish Kumar became the CM. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav became his deputy. RJD had won 80, JDU 71 and Congress 27 seats. BJP had won 53 seats. In August 2017, Nitish Kumar broke off from the alliance and joined hands with BJP and became the CM again, with BJP’s Sushil Modi as his deputy. The two states where the composition of government changed after government-formation:

SIKKIM
BJP became part of the government without winning a single assembly seat in May 2019 elections. Sikkim Krantikari Morcha won 17 of the 32 assembly seats. Ruling Sikkim Democratic Front could win only 15 seats. BJP didn’t win a single seat. However, in August, 10 SDF MLAs joined BJP and two SKM. Later, BJP tied up with SKM and in October byelections, BJP won from Martam-Rumtek (BL) and Gangtok. Thus opposition SDF is left with only one MLA. BJP became part of the government with 12 MLAs.

GOA
In March 2017, BJP formed the government with Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP) under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar. Later in March 2019, Pradeep Sawant became the CM with Sudhin Dhavlkar of MGP and Vijay Sardesai of GFP as his two deputies. Later, two of three MGP MLAs joined BJP and Manohar Ajgaonkar became the deputy CM. Dhavalkar was removed. BJP, which in 2017 had 13 MLAs, now has 27 MLAs after defections from Congress and other parties.