With political parties failing to arrive at a consensus to form a government in Maharashtra state, prompting imposition of the President’s Rule, people on Twitter are projecting the situation in the funniest ways possible.
Be it bickering among political parties or fighting for the chief minister’s post, Twitter has memes for every situation. The four major political parties in Maharashtra are – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); its ally Shiv Sena (SS), a right-wing Hindu party; the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress.
The state was ruled for five years by the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance before state legislatively elections delivered a fractured mandate without giving any single party or alliance enough seats required to form a government on its own.
In the state of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, the second-largest party in the 288-member State Assembly with 56 legislators after the BJP (105), was initially asking the latter to agree to provide it with half of the full five-year term to run the new government. Shiv Sena claimed it had a tacit understanding of the 50:50 formula ahead of the state elections.
The BJP, however, said it doesn’t wish to adopt any 50:50 formula to form the new state government. The BJP gave up its claim to form the government and conveyed it to the governor.
Shiv Sena approached its arch-rival the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress alliance after the former was invited by the state governor to show its strength. The party was given 24 hours to prove its political strength, but after it sought an extension of the deadline, Governor Bharat Singh Khoshiyari extended the offer to form the government to the NCP instead.
While the political discussions were continuing, the governor recommended President’s Rule be imposed, leaving all parties flabbergasted.
The confusion and disagreements have led to Twitter being flooded with memes that are tickling the funny bones of netizens.
Congress Helping Shiv Sena to sit on CM Chair 😜@ippatel@Dev_Fadnavis @AmitShah@AUThackeray @ShivSena #MaharashtraGovtFormation #MaharashtraPolitics pic.twitter.com/aydVCG3CPA
— Dr.Monika Langeh🇮🇳 (@drmonika_langeh) November 12, 2019
Maharashtra Governor is Doing this With #ShivaSena 😁
— Sujay Raj (@Sujay__Raj) November 12, 2019
NCP & Congress is the CameraMan. ♥️🤗#MaharashtraPolitics #MaharashtraGovtFormation pic.twitter.com/lcoVsWtuQU
— Jay Prajapati (@jayprajapati_05) November 12, 2019
👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/iv51zKEUmJ
— Ram sunder lal (@Ramsunderlal1) November 12, 2019
Meanwhile Sharad Pawar who didn't let his own party worker to share frame with him, how could have Aaditya Thackeray as a CM face?
— Geetika Swami (@SwamiGeetika) November 12, 2019
Lessons learnt much too late #ShivaSena? #MaharashtraPolitics #MaharashtraGovtFormation pic.twitter.com/I3SYJZ5uZg
This is what Shiv Sena did to itself 😂😂😂#TumSENAhoPayega #MaharashtraPolitics #MaharashtraGovtFormation #MaharashtraElections2019 pic.twitter.com/Ks4tBZUQkI
— Rosy (@rose_k01) November 11, 2019
On many occasions both the BJP and the Shiv Sena have become fodder for memes on the internet because both parties have been known in the past for publicly criticising each other yet forming coalition governments in the state to retain power.
The Shiv Sena and BJP are the Ross and Rachel of Indian politics pic.twitter.com/TAGx5MrvCK
— Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) May 31, 2018
Sena- why the hell you made alliance with NCP
— TheWhiteWalker (@Tauseef12356591) May 31, 2018
BJP- I thought we were on a BREAK
Note: only for FRIENDS fan
BJP & Shiv Sena's fight be like ....#MaharashtraPolitics pic.twitter.com/yFBRqxi5Dz
— #భారత్ (भारत) (@prrentapalla22) November 5, 2019
President’s Rule is a situation when the state is administered by the governor on behalf of the president of the country.