Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asserted on Sunday that if his leader Uddhav Thackeray has said someone from his party will become the chief minister in Maharashtra, then there will be Sena CM in any case.
Sanjay Raut’s comments came soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party informed Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari it will not be able to form the government in the western state as ally Shiv Sena was not willing to cooperate.
“If the BJP is not forming the government then how will they install their CM? Till yesterday evening, the BJP leadership was saying that they will get their CM,” Raut taunted BJP after meeting Uddhav Thackeray at his residence.
“Now, they don’t want to form the government. Nor do they want to fulfil the pact of 2.5 years CM with the Sena. What type of politics is this? If Uddhav Thackeray has said there will be Shiv Sena chief minister in Maharashtra, then there will be a Sena CM in any case,” Raut said outside Matoshree.
Caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and other senior BJP leaders met Governor Koshyari on Sunday evening as the tussle with the Shiv Sena over power-sharing remained unresolved.
“In the state assembly polls, we contested as part of a grand alliance ‘Mahayuti’ and we got the mandate for this alliance. If Shiv Sena wants to insult this mandate and form the government with Congress and NCP, then we wish them all the luck,” the BJP’s state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said while speaking to reporters.
The BJP and the Sena have been involved in an impasse over the government formation in the state since the election results were declared on October 24.
The Sena has insisted on rotating the chief minister’s post saying that the two parties agreed to it before the April-May national elections as part of a “50-50” power-sharing agreement.
Devendra Fadnavis has maintained that no “50-50 formula” had been agreed to. He resigned as the Maharashtra chief minister on Friday amid a war of words between the BJP and the Shiv Sena before the term of the last assembly ended without a new government in place on Friday.
The BJP has 105 lawmakers and the support of 15 independent legislators. It needs another 25 seats to reach the majority in the 288-member House. Shiv Sena, the BJP oldest and pre-poll ally, has 56 seats, the Congress 44 seats and NCP 54.
The BJP’s core committee met twice on Sunday at Fadnavis’ residence after hectic parleys on Saturday, but could not finalise its response to the Maharashtra governor’s invitation to form the government.
Koshyari’s invitation to the BJP to form the government on Saturday had come hours before the five-year tenure of the state assembly ended at midnight.
Source: HindustanTimes