Maharashtra governor once again proved to be Shah's 'hitman': Congress

Hitting out at Devendra Fadnavis being sworn-in as the Maharashtra chief minister, the Congress on Saturday alleged that the governor was once again proved to be BJP chief Amit Shah's "hitman", while asserting that the "illegitimate" government formation will self-destruct.

The month-long political impasse in Maharashtra ended dramatically on Saturday with the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Fadnavis returning as the chief minister, backed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

NCP's Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as the deputy chief minister.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath to Fadnavis and Pawar at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai at around 7.30 am.

In a series of tweets, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala hit out at the BJP, accusing it of taking a "contract to kill" democracy in India.

"It has been proven that the BJP has taken a contract to kill the country's democracy. The Governor has once again proved to be (BJP chief Amit) Shah's 'hitman'," he said in one of the tweets.

Surjewala also posed a number of questions on the government formation in Maharashtra such as when was the President's rule removed, the claim of forming government presented and the list of MLAs' support given to the governor.

"When did the MLAs appear before the Governor? Why was the swearing in done in such a manner like thieves do?"

"This is called betrayal of people's mandate and giving contract for killing democracy," he said in another tweet.

The Congress leader also tagged media reports on allegations of Ajit Pawar's involvement in scams.

"Lust for power washes away principles and corruption," Surjewala wrote on Twitter, tagging a September tweet of Fadnavis in which he had said the BJP will never ally with the NCP as it had "exposed" the latter's corruption.

The Congress has been alleging that the governors of many states are acting at the behest of the BJP.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who was at the forefront of the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations, said illegal and evil manoeuvres take place in the secrecy of midnight.

"Such was the shame that they had to do the swearing in hiding. This illegitimate formation will self destruct," he said in a tweet.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi expressed surprise at the political developments in Maharashtra and said the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations took too long as the window was grabbed by "fast movers".

"Surreal what I read about Maharashtra. Thought it was fake news. Candidly and personally speaking, our tripartite negotiations should not have gone on for more than 3 days...took too long. Window given was grabbed by fast movers. Pawarji tussi great ho! Amazing if true, still not sure," he said in a tweet.

Subsequently, in another tweet, Singhvi said, "My tweet at 8:45 am today while in a taking off flight to Ahmedabad has, hopefully, been overtaken by events in view of Sharadji's clarification. Even then I had called it surreal and possibly fake news. Appears that fakeness of full NCP joining BJP is true as per Pawar clarification.