Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday sounded a note of defiance soon after the party announced the election of veteran Eknath Shinde as legislature party chief.
Uddhav told Shiv Sena MLAs in Mumbai that the Shiv Sena remained firm on its demand that it wanted the chief minister's post for the party, which its ally, the BJP, has publicly not agreed to yet. Uddhav declared that the Shiv Sena "would not ditch its alliance partners", but demanded that the BJP first "agree to what you committed to".
Uddhav declared that the Shiv Sena was in touch with the BJP, Congress and NCP after the election results, sending an ominous message to the larger saffron party. He also claimed the Shiv Sena was in “no hurry” to push for formation of a government in Maharastra. A Shiv Sena delegation is slated to meet Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at 6.30pm on Thursday; the meeting had initially been announced for 3.30pm, but was postponed.
Since the Assembly election results were announced a week ago, the Shiv Sena and Uddhav have demanded that the BJP fulfil its "pledge" of implementing their agreement of "50:50" sharing of portfolios and the chief minister's post.
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Earlier this week, the Shiv Sena had circulated a video clip of a press conference with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, which was held in February.
"We have decided equal sharing of posts and responsibilities once we come to power again," Fadnavis is quoted as saying in Marathi at the presser to announce the Shiv Sena-BJP tie-up for the Lok Sabha elections. However Fadnavis denied that BJP chief Amit Shah had promised the Shiv Sena the sharing of the chief minister's post for a 2.5 year period.
(With inputs from Dnyanesh Jathar)