Most  news channels on Friday night flashed headlines that went, “Uddhav Thackrey to be the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.” Even front pages of some newspapers on Saturday morning carried similar headlines. Early this morning, in a surprising turn of events, each of these headlines turned out to be incorrect when BJP’s  Devendra Fadnavis took the oath of Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar took the oath of Deputy Chief Minister.

Both leaders took oath at eight in the morning at Raj Bhavan today, ending the long wait for government formation in Maharashtra. A marathon of meetings took place between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress since President’s rule was imposed in the government-less state on November 12.

On Friday, when the three parties had a combined meeting and it’s leaders claimed it to be fruitful, reports of Uddhav Thackrey as the next chief minister began doing the rounds in media. The leaders of all three parties informed the media that a joint press conference with all three parties present would be held on Saturday.

Speculations are rife that the NCP was ready to split because some senior leaders of NCP wanted to support the BJP. This included Ajit Pawar and more than 30 MLAs of the party. The whole political situation, however, changed when Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took the oath of Chief Minister and Deputy chief minister respectively this morning. Ajit Pawar, after taking oath, told reporters, “From the day the results were announced to this day, no party was able to form the government. Maharashtra was facing many issues, including farmer issues. So we decided to form a stable government.”