Even as suspense continues over the government formation in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday appointed two central observers for its legislative party meeting.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani will oversee the legislative party meeting where the newly elected MLAs will elect their leader, who is most likely to be the next chief minister.
Though BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who steered the party’s impressive show in the recent assembly elections, is tipped to be the next CM, the unusual delay in the government formation has fuelled speculation that all is not well within the Mahayuti alliance.
Eknath Shinde, the outgoing chief minister, has made it clear that he would accept any decision taken by the BJP leadership on the CM post, but reports suggest that the Shiv Sena is bargaining for the deputy CM post and plum portfolios, including Home.
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The BJP has claimed that the swearing-in of the new government will take place on December 5 at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party also said that the legislative party meeting will be held in nest two days.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar has said that the new CM would be from the BJP and that there will be two deputy CMs, each from the Shiv Sena and the NCP.
There were rumours that Shinde’s son and Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan Shrikant Shinde would become the deputy chief minister. Shrikant, however, dismissed these reports as baseless in a post on X.
"After elections results, formation of government is delayed a little and that is why so many rumours are floating around and one is that I am going to be the deputy chief minister in the new government. I want to tell everyone that this is completely baseless and false, there is no fact in this,” he said.
The ruling Mahayuti registered a resounding victory in the assembly elections, bagging 230 seats in the 288-member assembly. The BJP became the single largest party, pocketing 132 seats, while its allies, the Shiv Sena and the NCP, won 57 and 41 seats, respectively.
