Maharashtra CM News Highlights: Shinde or Fadnavis? Suspense over CM face continues

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday gave his take on Maharashtra CM pick and backed BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for the chief ministerial post.

He suggested that Eknath Shinde should either be made the deputy CM or join the Modi government at the Centre.

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Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Tuesday said that Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray's political condition took a dive after he moved away from the path of Hindutva and aligned with the Congress.

He said that Thackeray's condition will only worsen if he continues to align with the grand old party, PTI reported.

Bawankule further said that if Thackeray continues attacking senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, then 18 of the 20 party MLAs will leave him and he will be left with just two legislators by his side.

Uddhav Thackeray took stock of his party Shiv Sena (UBT)'s performance in the recently concluded Maharashtra assembly elections. Meeting with some leaders and candidates of the party, Thackeray appealed to them to not lose hope and work to rebuild the party.

Meanwhile, several leaders also pointed fingers at the functioning of EVMs.

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale told news agency PTI that the reason behind the deadlock over the CM debate is that BJP is urging that Devendra Fadnavis should become the CM. Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde's people say that He has done good work and he should become the CM.

"I believe that if Devendra Fadnavis would become the CM, then Eknath Shinde should be given a ministerial berth at Centre," Athawale added.

BJP Maharashtra President Chandrashekhar Bawankule told news agency ANI said that the opposition is still in shock from the state Assembly election results.

"They should introspect. When our candidates lost in the Lok Sabha elections, we introspected and worked, and today the result is before everyone... They have just the narratives of lies," Bawankule said.

He further added, "But, people of Maharashtra are with truth, with Mahayuti... Central leadership and the three leaders of Maharashtra (Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar) will sit together and they will take the decision (regarding CM's face)."

Speaking to news agency ANI, Shiv Sena leader Shambhuraj Desai said that as a Shiv Sainik, he believes that the party's main leader, Eknath Shinde, should get the CM post.

However, Desai said, "Who would lead our Mahayuti and who would be the CM face of Mahayuti - our three leaders Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar would sit together and discuss this. Whatever they decide will be accepted by all the MLAs of Mahayuti and the same decision will be implemented."

"Every party feels that a leader of their own party should get the CM post. If you ask me, as a Shiv Sainik, I would say that our main leader Eknath Shinde should get the CM post. The same goes for BJP leaders who want Devendra Fadnavis to get the post...But all three leaders will sit together and discuss. A solution would come out after discussions," Desai said.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday slammed the Congress for its performance in the Maharashtra elections, saying hat people across most states in the country have dismissed "Congress' shop of illusion, lies, and deception".

In a post on X, Pradhan noted that Maharashtra has become the 17th state where the grand old party holds less than 10 per cent of the Assembly seats.

He also criticized the Congress leaders for their divisive tactics and said that all of those tacts failed.

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale told news agency ANI that Eknath Shinde was a bit unhappy when he came to know that the BJP top brass has chosen Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, which he said he understands.

"But, BJP has got 132 seats and hence I think there should be a way, Devendra Fadnavis should be made the CM. Eknath Shinde can assume the charge of deputy CM. If he is not willing to be the deputy CM, he can be made union minister in PM Modi's cabinet... The people of Maharashtra want Devendra Fadnavis to be the CM," he added.

Speaking at the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyan' function at the Talkatora stadium, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that he does not wish to speak about elections.

"...But I would surely say the votes of all the poor and oppressed communities are going to waste. They should all demand voting by ballot paper. Let them keep EVMs with them. We don't want EVMs, we want voting ballot paper. Then they will know what their position is and where they stand," Kharge added.

Amid suspense on the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Shirsat said that there will clarity on the same by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, news agency PTI reported.

The Shiv Sena spokesperson said that decision on the CM face will be taken by Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar after discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and other top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat told news agency PTI and said, "The PM is saying 'Ek Hain To Safe Hain', whereas the Mahayuti leaders are saying 'Batoge To Katoge', however these two slogans can be supportive of each other. But these slogans were successful in Maharashtra, but wasn't in Jharkhand, it is contradictory."

"I expect the experts to analyse this contradiction. There might be some other factor in Maharashtra which let them achieve this big win," he added.

TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee spoke about Congress' failure to achieve the desired results in Maharashtra and Haryana. It said, "we had tremendous hope from the Congress that they would do better."

"INDIA alliance is there but the expected result could not be achieved. And there is a great failure on the part of the congress to achieve the result," Banerjee told news agency ANI.

He further said, "Today it is necessary if you want to fight against the BJP, INDIA alliance should be stronger. And to make it stronger, one leader is required. Now who can be the leader? That's the core question. Congress has done it. All experiments have been done, but they have failed."

The Congress CWC meeting is scheduled to be held on November 29 to discuss the grand old party's electoral performance and defeat in Maharashtra and Haryana, as well as the current political scenario, news agency ANI reported.

The BJP has said that it is in no rush to decide its CM candidate in Maharashtra. This comes as the part focuses on finalizing the distribution of ministerial portfolios within the newly formed government, news agency PTI reported citing sources.

The report has claimed that a decision on who will lead the state will be delayed until the coalition's internal discussions on cabinet formation are completed. Read full story here

BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the way opposition is questioning EVMs in Maharashtra due to their loss and is all fine with the EVMs in Jharkhand since they won there.

"Rahul Gandhi ji should learn to accept defeat with humility," Prasad told news agency ANI.

BJP's Maharashtra unit president Chandrashekhar Bawankule told reporters in Mumbai, "This is a Mahayuti government. The government is going to come for 14 crore people. Some time is being taken but it is in the interest of the people, in the interest of Maharashtra. Our central leadership and the three leaders of Maharashtra will sit and a suitable decision will be taken."

Maharashtra CM News Live: Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut addressed reporters on Tuesday and had sharp words to say about the Mahayuti alliance.

“These two parties are slaves of Amit Shah and PM Modi and are sub-companies of the BJP. Currently, the BJP has a majority...They can break Eknath Shinde's and Ajit Pawar's parties for the majority," he said.

He added, "According to me, Devendra Fadnavis will be the next CM."

Maharashtra CM News Live: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said on Tuesday that the Maharashtra dispute needed to end soon and that Eknath Shinde should let Devendra Fadnavis be the next CM.

“BJP's high command has decided that Devendra Fadnavis should be made the CM but Eknath Shinde is unhappy and his displeasure needs to be removed...BJP has so many seats that even BJP will not agree. I think that Eknath Shinde should take 2 steps back, just like Devendra Fadnavis took 4 steps back and worked under his leadership," he said.

Maharashtra CM News Live: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Tuesday clarified that the MNS candidate from Dahisar assembly constituency in the city received 53 votes in one of the polling centres and not two.

In a post on X, the civic body refuted losing candidate Rajesh Yerunkar's allegations of EVM manipulation.

"There is no factual basis to the allegations," they said.

Maharashtra CM News Live: Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar spoke to reporters after CM Eknath Shinde's resignation to assure them that the swearing in of the CM and formation of the government would be done at the soonest.

He said, "Every political worker desires that the CM should from his or her party, but whatever decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah take will be acceptable to all of us."

He added,"Shinde has told the senior leaders that whatever decision they take is acceptable to him."

Maharashtra CM News Live: "Even our winning MLAs have said that the EVMs were faulty," said NCP-SP leader Jitendra Awhad who was the winning candidate from the Mumbra-Kalwa assembly seat.

He also said that a "mass movement" will arise out of these problems, claiming that many villages are already seeing protests.

"A mass movement will rise in the state. Many villages are already seeing an uprising, the villagers are saying that 'we did not vote so where did this vote come from?' In one house there were 32 votes, all those went to one candidate. Whereas the house's own candidate is shown as zero votes," the NCP SP leader said.

Maharashtra CM News Live: On Tuesday, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde met Governor C P Radhakrishnan and tendered his resignation following the results of the state assembly elections.

The governor has asked Shinde to act as a caretaker chief minister till a new CM is sworn in.

Maharashtra CM News Live: Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde has handed his resignation to Governor Radhakrishnan at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on Tuesday.

A decision on who will be the next chief minister of Maharashtra is awaited.

Maharashtra CM News Live: Chief minister Eknath Shinde arrived at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, soon after deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

The two leaders are frontrunners for the post of chief minister in the Maharashtra government.

Maharashtra CM News Live: BJP senior leader Devendra Fadnavis arrived at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai after visiting Delhi, amid questions on whether he or Eknath Shinde will take the CM post.