A new political hoarding has been put up outside Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence Matoshree on Sunday demanding that he be made the chief minister of Maharashtra even as the party remains locked in fight with its ally BJP for sharing the top job in the state.
The hoarding came up 15 days after similar poster had projected Thackeray’s son and first-time MLA Aaditya Thackeray as the next chief minister. Aaditya who is the first from the Thackeray family to contest and win an election, was widely seen as a possible candidate for the deputy CM’s position ahead of the polls. After the election results, the Shiv Sena insisted that the BJP had agreed to split the chief ministership for half the tenure of the government.
Sunday’s hoarding came up even as the BJP’s core group met to decide Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s invitation to caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to indicate “willingness and ability” to form the government.
The Shiv Sena hardened its position on Sunday with the party’s mouthpiece Saamana claiming that Thackeray will decide on the next chief minister of Maharashtra and with Nationalist Congress party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar will play an “important role”.
The impasse over government formation in Maharashtra has dragged for more than a fortnight since the election results were declared on October 24. The BJP which won 105 seats in the 288-member Assembly is 40 short of a clear majority to form a government. The Shiv Sena won 54 seats.
The term of the Assembly ended Saturday midnight.
Earlier Sunday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was quoted as saying that if no party was willing to form a government, then the Shiv Sena could take responsibility to form it. It is not clear, though, how the Shiv Sena can cobble up the numbers.
Source: HindustanTimes