MUMBAI: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday evening joined a league of eight leaders who became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra when they were still not a member of either the state Legislative Assembly or Council.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
The then Congress leader and current NCP chief Sharad Pawar also find his name in this list.
Thackeray, 59, who was sworn in as chief minister at the Shivaji Park on Thursday evening, will become the eighth such leader.
According to provisions of the Constitution, any leader who is not a member of the Assembly or Council has to become a member of the legislature within six months of taking the oath of the post.
Antulay became the first such leader in the state when he was sworn in as the chief minister in June 1980.
Vasantdada Patil occupied the coveted post in February 1983 after resigning as a parliamentarian.
Nilangekar-Patil became chief minister in June 1985 while Shankarrao Chavan, who was then a Union minister, got the top post in the state in March 1986.
Pawar, who was defence minister in the Narasimha Rao- led government, was named Maharashtra chief minister in March 1993 after Sudhakarrao Naik was removed from the post following the riots in Mumbai.
Besides, Prithviraj Chavan, a minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, became the state's chief minister in November 2010, replacing Ashok Chavan.
Antulay, Nilangekar-Patil and Shinde contested the Assembly bypolls after they became chief ministers and emerged victorious.
The other four leaders fulfilled the constitutional provision by becoming a member of the Legislative Council.