On expected lines, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray late on Wednesday quit his post and also as Member of Legislative Council - 9 days after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was reduced to a minority with an unprecedented rebellion by the Shiv Sena legislators.
With this the two-and-half year old, three-party Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government experiment has collapsed, barely hours after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari ordered a floor test late on Tuesday night.
Thackeray announced his resignation - "I am quitting the post of CM" - in a public address to the people of the state on social media, in his familiar, cool, composed, father-figure style as he did regularly in the past two-and-half years.