Team News Riveting
Mumbai, November 26
Amidst flurry of political activities going on in Mumbai, BJP leadership is reportedly working upon two formulae to resolve the issue of Maharashtra Chief Minister without any dispute.
In both the plans, Devendra Fadnavis has an upper hand. The former Deputy Chief Minister is likely to discuss the modalities after discussion with the senior leaders in New Delhi.
Eknath Shinde on Tuesday morning tendered his resignation as Chief Minister, which is seen as a big development under the strategy in which the work is going on. Governor C P Radhakrishnan has asked Shinde to serve as caretaker Chief Minister till the next one is sworn in.
The BJP-led Mahayuti coalition won a landslide victory in the elections bagging 235 seats in the 288-member assembly.
According to BJP insiders, there are two scenarios that are being worked upon. In the first scenario, Eknath Shinde will be the deputy Chief Minister under leadership of Devendra Fadnavis for the full five years. And there will be no rotation in two and half years. The BJP leadership has set its mind not to repeat the Bihar formula and handover Chief Ministership to alliance partner Nitish Kumar despite party securing more seats.
The resentment of party workers in Bihar has put the BJP leadership in a backfoot to consider repeating Shinde. Sources said if Shinde became Deputy Chief Minister, he might be given the powerful Ministry of Urban Development or PWD. Speculations are also ripe that Ajit Pawar can be given Finance Ministry and he will also remain Deputy Chief Minister.
Home Ministry to remain with BJP with Devendra Fadnavis taking the charge.
In the second scenario, the BJP sources said, Eknath Shinde’s close aides Uday Samant, Shambhuraje Desai, or Deepak Kesarkar may become deputy Chief Minister. In such a case, Shinde may move to New Delhi in the national politics.
The BJP won 132 seats in the recent assembly elections while its allies Shiv Sena and NCP emerged victorious on 57 and 41 seats, respectively. Several smaller outfits are also part of the coalition.
