How Amit Shah's Maharashtra midnight coup took national newspapers completely off-guard

While the dramatic turn of events in Maharashtra government formation has stunned opposition parties on Saturday morning, print media especially daily newspapers were completely taken caught off-guard by the fluid situation that prevailed in the Maratha politics.

Till Friday night (November 22), according to NCP President Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray was picked to lead the Maharashtra government. Starting from Congress to Shiv Sena, everybody was happy as it is the culmination of a long political crisis after Uddhav Thackeray broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP.

However, the happiness of Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP were shortlived after Devendra Fadnavis returned as the chief minister again, backed by NCP's Ajit Pawar on Saturday morning.

Now, newspapers across the country that had published news with headlines claiming that Uddhav Thackeray is all set to be the new chief minister were simply unable to salvage the situation.

Many on social media made the best out of the misfortune faced by newspapers by tweeting that print media having a shorter shelf life than digital media or television today. “Newspapers Headlines.

Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena forming govt in Maharashtra, and in TV BJP has already form the govt here,” a tweet stated.

 

The latest development further highlights the challenges faced by the newspapers as they try to stay relevant at a time when digital media and televisions are steadily gaining prominence at print media’s expense. And looking at the response of netizen’s it seems print is fighting a losing battle.

“2 minutes of silence to all newspaper agency who printed last night that Ss-NCP-INC will form government in Maharashtra n UT will become CM #MaharashtraPolitics,” read one tweet while another tweeted about the obvious embarrassment after looking at their headline of the day that pointed out at swearing-in of Uddhav Thackrey as chief minister of the state. “In the Maharashtra political drama, the biggest loser are the newspapers. They must be looking at their headlines today and cringing,” read the tweet.

 

Some used the situation to take a dig at Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana that has put Thackrey’s swearing-in as the headline. “Today Saamana will not distribute newspaper as it had already printed news about Uddhav Thackeray becoming CM of Maharashtra,” said the tweet.