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BJP, NCP MLAs to meet on Oct 30
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will hold meetings of all its legislators to finalise their respective party leaders in
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will hold meetings of all its legislators to finalise their respective party leaders in the Maharashtra Assembly on October 30, after Diwali. In case of the BJP, the meeting will be held to decide the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
The BJP meeting is being seen as a formality as chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has already been endorsed for a second stint by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the elections. “Fadnavis will be our chief minister,” said the BJP’s state unit chief Chandrakant Patil on Saturday.
“There is no alternative to Fadnavis in the BJP, especially now that we are more beholden to the Sena to form the government. The state unit also realises that the party has won 105 seats, largely thanks to him,” said a BJP minister.
The next government has to be formed by November 8.
The NCP will have to decide its leader of Opposition, as this post is now with the party after it won 54 seats in the Assembly polls. Unlike the BJP, the NCP has several contenders to lead the party in the Assembly as the leader of Opposition and the leader of the party in the Vidhan Sabha. It is likely that the NCP will pass a resolution giving powers to party chief Sharad Pawar to make these appointments.
Pawar’s nephew and former deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar; NCP state unit chief Jayant Patil; former leader of Opposition in the legislative council, Dhananjay Munde, who has been now elected to the Assembly, are some of the contenders for these posts.
As the party has got a mandate from the Maratha community, Pawar may choose to continue with either Ajit Pawar or Patil as the leader of the party in the legislature and promote Munde, an OBC face as the leader of Opposition.
