Celebrations for Fadnavis begin, Shinde camp reaches Goa as Uddhav says ‘I quit’

Devendra Fadnavis, who was removed from the chief minister's post 2.5 years ago, is being celebrated as the most probable face of Maharashtra alongside Eknath Shinde.

Celebrations began in Mumbai and Goa in the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP and Eknath Shinde's rebel camps, respectively, moments after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as the chief minister of Maharashtra in a late evening address on Wednesday.

Former Maharashtra CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.(ANI)

Loud cheers were sounded for Fadnavis, who held the CM’s post till November 2019, at the Taj President hotel in Mumbai where a legislative meeting of the saffron party leaders was underway.

Ladoos were fed to the BJP leader who is likely to take over again as the chief minister of the cash-rich state. Party leaders were heard raising slogans of “Jai jai Shivaji”.

“Hamara mukhya mantri kaisa ho, Devendra Fadnavis jaisa ho (Who should be our chief minister, someone like Devenedra Fadnavis),” was also heard amid the celebrations.

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Meanwhile, rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Shinde, landed at the Dabolim airport in Goa from Guwahati. A close aide of Shinde said the group will be reaching Mumbai by 9:30am on Thursday.

Thackeray, who came to power two-and-a-half years ago with the help of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders after severing decades-old ties with the BJP, announced his resignation in a Facebook Live session, minutes after the Supreme Court ruled that he must prove majority at the floor test on Thursday.

Thackeray also quit the post of member of legislative council. “I had come to power in an unexpected manner and I am going out in a similar fashion. I am not going away forever, I will be here, and I will once again sit in Shiv Sena Bhawan,” he said.

The floor test, scheduled for Thursday, holds little to no meaning as of now. Eknath Shinde's MLAs are expected to stitch an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is expected to return to power.

If reports are to be believed, Shinde may be offered the post of deputy chief minister with Fadnavis preparing to stake claim to the government.