Increasing instances of appointment of deputy chief ministers in the country: Emerging issues

Over the years there has been an increase in the instances of appointment of deputy Chief Ministers (CM) across the States by almost all the political parties coming to power although the Constitution of India does not provide this post. Mainly the increasing instances of the appointment of deputy CM are the results of balancing the political power equations among the various factions of ruling parties and the coalition's partners. Presently fifteen out of twenty eight states and one out of eight union territories have deputy Chief Ministers. There are five deputy Chief Ministers in Andhra Pradesh (maximum in the country); Karnataka has three; Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Goa have two each while Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Tripura have one each deputy CM. Seeing the rising trend, there is all possibility that these instances are here to stay and the number of deputy CMs is going to increase further in the country.