A day after Maharashtra’s acting Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde claimed that the BJP has “no objection” to the Chief Minister in Maharashtra, leaders of the three victorious Mahayuti alliance partners – BJP leaders Fadnavis, Shinde and NCP chief Ajit Pawar – have… Met top officials. At Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence on Thursday night… the leaders discussed the Chief Minister’s post, Cabinet berth and the swearing-in ceremony in the presence of BJP President JP Nadda.
before the meeting of BJP The brass, which started late, held two separate meetings, sources said. While Shah and Nadda met Shinde at Shah’s residence, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare along with Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar met at Tatkare’s Delhi residence.
The BJP got 132 seats in the 288-seat assembly – 13 seats short of a majority – and was the key partner in the recently formed alliance. Maharashtra In the assembly elections, both the alliance partners suggested that they had no problem with the BJP Chief Minister. While Shinde said in a press conference that he had no problem with it, Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said Indian Express That Ajit Pawar was not in the race for the post of CM.
According to BJP insiders, the party insisted Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister due to his overwhelming dominance in the election results, and suggested a formula to sweeten the pill for allies, especially Shinde, who would lose his chief ministerial post. He said the talk of Fadnavis being selected to lead the government was strengthened by the fact that he had gone to Nagpur to meet RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat after polling ended on November 20. The leaders said that a new government can be formed in Maharashtra by December. 2.
“We insisted on this position, because we are very close to the majority on our own. However, there are possible sources to ensure allies do not feel humiliated,” a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity. He suggested that one formula was to expand the Union Council of Ministers to accommodate Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde as Union Minister.
Another leader said that since Eknath Shinde It may be that there is no desire to become Deputy Chief Minister after being CM, another formula could be to bring him to Delhi as a Cabinet Minister and send Srikant to Maharashtra as a Minister or Deputy Chief Minister.
A BJP insider cautioned that the party is certain to get the CM post, but one cannot be completely sure as caste equations may also be affected. He said that as a Brahmin, Fadnavis was from a small populous caste, and the BJP’s performance may have been aided by significant sections of Marathas voting for the alliance as both of the saffron party’s allies have Maratha leaders. If this becomes an issue, the leadership may choose an unexpected BJP face, as happened Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh And Chattisgarh Last year. It remains to be seen whether the BJP will go too far on the path of leadership experimentation after losing 63 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, some other BJP sources said it was unlikely that the leadership would be “surprised” as its allies have also emerged strong in the assembly elections. “Only an experienced leadership that has rapport with the leaders can ensure a stable government,” the source said.
Ajit Pawar addressed the media in Delhi and said that the Grand Alliance is united and the opposition is crying over EVMs because they have lost. “Even in the parliamentary elections, the EVMs were fine as the result was in favor of them (Maha Vikas Aghadi). The results are different in the assembly elections and they are now finding faults in the EVMs.” He also clarified that his priority is to establish NCP as a national party after the split and the party’s next target will be the Delhi assembly elections. He said it would soon hold its national conference in the national capital.
Earlier in the day, NCP sources said it was more or less decided that Fadnavis would be the chief minister of the grand alliance government in the state.
Although things are going well with BJP’s allies, Shiv Sena Leader Shaina NC, who was earlier in the BJP, said that given the way Eknath Shinde worked for the common man and led Mahayuti to victory, “he should have been the natural choice”. Underlining that he has shown the dignity to say that the high command will take the decision, he said, “Mahayuti is here to stay and work in the interest of the people of Maharashtra. The public has given a befitting reply to all those people who lost and abandoned their ideology for the sake of power…”