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Elected BJP legislature party leader, Fadnavis puts timeframe to Sena talks
Devendra Fadnavis thanked MLAs for reposing faith in him and giving him another chance to serve the state.He also thanked Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena will soon form a government in the state as the mandate was for their alliance while dismissing rumours of an “alternate formulae” as “entertainment”.
The statement came a day after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray cancelled a meeting with the BJP on the government formation soon after Fadnavis said that there was no agreement between the two parties on sharing the chief minister’s post for half the government’s five-year term. The move suggested worsening of the strained relationship between the two parties as neither side appeared to budge on the terms of cabinet formation a week after the assembly election.
“The mandate of voters of Maharashtra is for the mahayuti [the BJP-Sena alliance]. Hence, the mahayuti is going to form its government soon in the state,” Fadnavis told the newly-elected lawmakers of the BJP as he was on Wednesday re-elected as the leader of its legislature party.
The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly with 105 seats. It is 40 seats short of the majority mark. The Shiv Sena, a pre-poll ally of the BJP, is the second-largest party with 56 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party has 54 seats and the Congress 44. The Sena agreed to contest fewer seats than the BJP in a seat-sharing deal ahead of the state elections.
Fadnavis referred to rumours of an “alternate formulae” for the government formation. “Though there are several rumours floating around in the state about alternate formulae being worked out to form the government, it is more of an entertainment,” he said.
Fadnavis thanked BJP lawmakers for reposing faith in him and giving him another chance to serve the state. He also thanked Thackeray and said that talks with the Shiv Sena will be completed in “two-three days.”
The Shiv Sena has insisted on a 50:50 power-sharing formula, which it maintains was agreed with the BJP ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha elections.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday hit out at Fadnavis for saying that the 50-50 formula was never discussed. “Then I think we need to change the definition of truth. What was discussed is known by all. The media was present,” Raut said. He added that Thackeray has said that they have other options too but they do not want to commit the sin of accepting that. “Shiv Sena has always done politics of truth, we are not hungry for power,” Raut was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Tuesday.
Newly-elected Shiv Sena lawmakers will on Thursday separately elect their legislature party leader in Maharashtra. Eknath Shinde was the party’s legislative party leader in the last assembly.
News agency Press Trust of India separately cited unnamed sources and reported that two Independent lawmakers Manjula Gavit and Chandrakant Nimba Patil on Wednesday pledged their support to the Shiv Sena after meeting Thackeray. Patil defeated BJP leader Eknath Khadse’s daughter, Rohini Khadse, in the October 21 assembly elections.
(With PTI inputs)
