Maharashtra BJP To Meet Wednesday To Elect Legislature Party Leader
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is emerging as the most likely candidate to lead the BJP in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Maharashtra Legislature Party will meet in Mumbai on Wednesday to elect its new leader, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the most likely candidate.
This, even as he denied BJP ally Shiv Sena the chief minister’s post on a rotational basis—a move that has put into question the government formation in Maharashtra.
On Tuesday, Fadnavis asserted that he will be the chief minister for another five years. He also said that BJP President Amit Shah will not attend the meeting of the newly-elected BJP MLAs to pick the legislature party leader. Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and BJP Vice President Avinash Rai Khanna are the central observers for the meeting.
However, according to senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil, Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will finalise the contours of the "50:50 formula" but distanced himself from commenting on the seat-sharing agreement that Thackeray has been talking about.
"That formula was proposed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections (held earlier this year) and I am not aware of it," Patil, who became the Maharahtra BJP president after the general elections, said on Tuesday.
According to sources in the BJP, the discussion and agreement reached with the Shiv Sena on formalising the alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was on "equitable distribution of power and not on the post of the chief minister".
Since Oct. 21, when the Maharashtra election results were declared, Thackeray has been claiming that the 50:50 formula on sharing of power was "agreed upon" between himself, Shah and Fadnavis ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
However, Fadnavis on Tuesday denied that the Shiv Sena was ever assured the chief minister's post for two-and-a-half years as part of the power sharing "formula".
The BJP won 105 seats in the Mahasrashtra election results and has been wooing 13 Independents and MLAs from smaller parties to shore up its strength in the 288-member state assembly. The Thakeray-led Shiv Sena won 56 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party, 54, and the Congress, 44.
