Uddhav Thakeray set to become Maharashtra CM; swearing-in on Thursday

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will become the next chief minister of Maharashtra with the Sena-NCP-Congress leaders set to meet Governor B.K. Koshyari to stake claim to form government in the state.

The three parties are now meeting at Hotel Trident in Mumbai where they elected Thackeray as the leader of the alliance.

At the meeting, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde moved a resolution to form 'Maha Vikas Aghadi', the alliance of the three parties. Both the NCP and the Congress supported the resolution.

Uddhav will be the first from the Thackeray family to assume a government post. His father late Bal Thackeray wielded the 'remote control' over the first Sena-BJP combine government during 1995-99 but never assumed a position in the government.

Balasaheb Thorat (Congress) and Jayant Patil (NCP) are likely to be sworn in as deputy chief ministers.

Earlier, the four-day-old BJP government collapsed after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar rsigned hours after Supreme Court ordered a floor test in the Assembly on Wednesday.

Fadnavis was sworn in on November 23 in an early morning hush hush ceremony, with the support of Ajit Pawar, who then headed the 54-member NCP legislature party.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has called a special session of the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday where floor test will be conducted after pro-tem speaker administers oath to the 288 newly-elected members.

The oath will be administered by newly-appointed pro-tem speaker Kalidas Kolambkar at the session, which will begin at 8 am.

Kolambkar was appointed by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday evening on directions of the Supreme Court.