President's rule imposed in Maharashtra for third time

Maharashtra is heading to President's Rule, which B R Ambedkar believed would remain a "dead letter", for the third time since the state was formed in 1960 and 130th time since India's independence.

While the first Indian province to be put under the Centre's Rule was Vindhya Pradesh, a state formed in 1948 and located between Uttar Pradesh to the north and Madhya Pradesh to the south, in April 1949 under the India Act as Constitution was not adopted, the first state to be put under President's Rule was Punjab in 1951.

Maharashtra Govt Formation Live

Maharashtra first got the taste of Article 356 between 17 February 1980 and 9 June 1980 in controversial circumstances after Indira Gandhi returned to power after her loss in 1977 post-Emergency elections.

In what was seen as a tit-for-tat action, she dismissed nine non-Congress governments in Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. When Janata Party rode to power in 1977, it had dismissed eight Congress-led governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in just two days -- April 29 and April 30, 1977.

The second round of President's Rule in Maharashtra was between 28 September 2014 and 31 October 2014 after then Congress Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan tendered resignation following the walkout of NCP from government over disagreement over seat-sharing. The President's rule ended when the Devendra Fadnavis of BJP was sworn in as Chief Minister.

History shows that President's Rule was imposed in Vindhya Pradesh after the Chief Minister resigned while it was revoked after the first General elections in March 1952. Vindhya Pradesh was merged into Madhya Pradesh in 1956 following the reorganisation of states.

The first state to be put under President's Rule after the adoption of Constitution was Punjab on 20 June 1951. According to political historians, the state was kept under suspended animation for almost ten months to help Congress to get its act together.

Among the states, Manipur was put under President's Rule for 10 followed by Uttar Pradesh (nine), Punjab and Bihar (eight each) and Karnataka, Odisha and Puducherry (six each).

In his book 'Presidential Rule: A Study in Crisis Politics', Bhagwan D Dua argues that the imposition of President's Rule was highest during the 1966-77 period when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister. Her government invoked the provision 39 times while it was nine during Morarji Desai's Prime Ministership.

Another analysis by writer Subhash Chander Arora shows that Article 356 was used 40 times in a decade in the 1970s while it was used 18 times in 1980s. From 1990, the provision was used 35 times.

Summing up the debate in the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar had said that he expected that such articles, including Article 356), will never be called into operation and that they remain a dead letter. "If at all they are brought into operation, I hope the President who is endowed with these powers will take proper precaution before actually suspending the administration of the Province," he had said.