Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis resigned as chief minister on Tuesday, a day before the trust vote in the 288-member legislative assembly.

Before Fadnavis, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who in a surprise turn of events engineered an alliance between the NCP and BJP, resigned.

The Fadnavis government fell hours after the Supreme Court ordered Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to hold a floor test in the Assembly tomorrow, November 27, Wednesday.

The apex court also asked the government to telecast live the proceedings of the floor test.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea filed by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine seeking a floor test by the Maharashtra government formed by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis with the support of NCP’s Ajit Pawar.

The top court has directed that a protem speaker shall be appointed immediately and the floor test shall be conducted via an open ballot process.

The fall of the Fadnavis government comes as a setback to the BJP, which had earlier claimed that is had 170 MLAs in its favour.