'Newspapers Were Prophetic': Uddhav Thackeray Set to be Maharashtra CM Fuels Jokes

On Saturday, while the whole country woke up to notifications of the BJP forming government in Maharashtra after turning the tables on the "maha" alliance of the NCP, Shiv Sena and the Congress, the morning newspaper seemed a tad old.

Apart from being completely bamboozled, Indians were also struck by a sudden epiphany that print media may gradually (and unfortunately) become irrelevant someday. Social media was flooded with tweets containing photos of front pages of leading newspapers who had all published news with headlines stating that Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray would be the new chief minister of the state.

If you've missed out on the latest updates in Maharashtra, here's a brief summary of how things panned out:

Following BJP's coup which resulted in Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar becoming CM and Deputy CM, the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance moved the Supreme Court and called for an immediate floor test. The top court agreed and ordered a floor test on November 27. Soon after, the Pawar nephew resigned which left BJP at a loss since they didn't have the majority required to form government in the state anymore. Consequently, Fadnavis resigned as well. On Wednesday, 288 MLAs took oath in the Maharashtra assembly and Uddhav Thackeray is all set to become the next chief minister of the state.

Were the newspapers right all along? Or did they just get lucky? On Sunday, several newspapers laughed at their own misfortune. However, today Indian Twitter can't help but wonder if the newspaper editors are having the last laugh. Some even said that this latest development in the political drama only makes things easier for the newspapers because they can just reuse headlines they used on Saturday.

Those stale newspapers have become original again 😀 #MahaThriller #MahaPoliticalTwist #Maharashtra

— Gaurav (@CAG_aurav) November 26, 2019

So Maharashtra print media going to sell the 3 days old newspaper ?#JustAsking #Maharastra @chitraaum — Anirban Sen (@AnirbanSen7) November 26, 2019

Newspaper headlines proved prophetic! #Maharashtra https://t.co/qH3Ybd3hcI

— Rituraj Purohit (@rituraj_prht) November 26, 2019

Newspapers might be wondering whether they should print headline of #UddhavThackarey to be CM of #Maharashtra again!#MahaThriller #MahaPoliticalTwist #MaharashtraCM #MahaVikasAghadi — SVK (@svknet) November 26, 2019

All newspapers can now reuse their Saturday headlines for today. 😀 #Maharashtra

— Arpita Raj (@rjarpitaa) November 26, 2019

Newspapers on November 26 focussed on the resignation of #DevendraFadnavis as #Maharashtra CM and #UddhavThackeray’s ascent as CM on Thursday pic.twitter.com/HshtW2hrfY — Soumyadipta Roy 🇮🇳 (@soumodiptoroyy) November 27, 2019