Devendra Fadnavis Stakes Claim to Form Maharashtra Govt with Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde

Devendra Fadnavis Stakes Claim: The third Chief Ministership of Devendra Fadnavis is being confirmed officially. Besides him, the other two leaders-in-chief, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, have staked claim to form a government after Mahayuti's thumping win in the state polls together.

The three leaders met Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan on Wednesday after the BJP legislature party elected Fadnavis as their leader.

November 23 likely saw the end of an 'Maha'bharat in the Maharashtra elections, with Mahayuti emerging as the crowned victor, but immediately igniting discussions about the next Chief Minister. Also, the portfolios for Shinde and Pawar remain to be known in the state cabinet.

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The ceremony will be held at 5:30 PM on December 5 at Azad Maidan in Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The Governor has given us time of 5.30pm on December 5 for the swearing in, we have given a letter of smaller parties like Jan Surajya party and other smaller parties, I thank Eknathji Shinde and Ajit Pawar of the NCP for giving a letter to the Governor for giving a letter to the Governor supporting me as the Chief Minister," Fadnavis said during a press conference later.

He further stated that the parties concerned would inform him of the number of people to be sworn in, to be decided jointly.

"We will take a joint decision, Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister is a technical arrangement amongst us, we are all together for the state's progress. I had met Eknath Shinde ji yesterday and told him to be a part of the government and that the Shiv Sena MLAs want him to be a part of the government. Iam confident that we would get a favourable response from him," Fadnavis said.

Mahayuti-united Mahayuti won 230 seats in the 288-member assembly with three major camps, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), NCP (Ajit Pawar), and BJP. The saffron party, however, emerged as the single largest party, missing the majority mark of 145 with 132 seats. The Eknath Shinde faction and Ajit Pawar-NCP secured 57 and 41 seats respectively.

Prior to this, Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, had submitted his resignation to Governor CP Radhakrishnan at Raj Bhavan and assumed charge as the caretaker C.M of the state.

The BJP is bringing in a plan to reinstate Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister of the state, a decision that has reportedly posed some bumps on its coalition with Shinde's Sena, which is keen on seeing their leader hold the position.

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A group of BJP insiders previously informed the TOI that the move had been communicated to the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to the effect that it was willing to embrace all ideas pertaining to the return of the senior leader, Fadnavis.

BJP has been claiming to regard how its strength is going to reflect in the Maharashtra assembly for the post of CM, while the Shinde faction is demanding a similar model in the western state of India as in Bihar government.

Part of the alliance's grievances was also offered by BJP with deputy chief ministerships to both Shinde and Pawar. Until today, however, critical aspects of ministerial portfolios and resource sharing were yet to be finalized, as discussions were still in progress.

In the latest development, BJP Maharashtra held a core committee meeting in Mumbai presiding to the legislature party meet with present members Nirmala Sitharaman and Vijay Rupani alongside Fadnavis for state party observers.

Both Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde have met with the bigwigs of BJP that is Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Nadda in New Delhi to briefly discuss the leadership challenge and the expected government formation.

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