skip to content
Advertisement
Premium

CM’s post up for grabs: Ajit Pawar says decision to be taken jointly, Shiv Sena and BJP leaders raise decibel levels for Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis

While Ajit Pawar set the record straight, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and another Deputy Chief Minister Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remained mum and rushed to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

ajit pawar on maharashtra cmMaharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar flashes victory sign during a press conference as the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance secures victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.(PTI Photo)

THOUGH Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today clarified that the decision regarding who should be the chief minister will be taken by the three key allies of the Mahayuti, top BJP and Shiv Sena leaders asserted that their leaders will be enthroned to the post.

“I have been elected as the legislature party leader of the NCP. All powers have been given to me…Eknath Shinde was also yesterday elected as the legislature party leader. Now BJP must have decided who should be elected its leader. After that three of us will hold a meeting and will also discuss with our colleagues. We will provide a strong and stable government,” Ajit Pawar told reporters in Karad.

While Ajit Pawar set the record straight, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and another Deputy Chief Minister Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remained mum and rushed to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Ajit Pawar is likely to go to Delhi tomorrow morning. The issue of chief minister is likely to be sorted out at their meeting.

Story continues below this ad

Even as the chief minister’s name remained under suspense, leaders of both BJP and Shiv Sena strongly backed their leaders to the post.

Senior BJP leader Raosaheb Danve, a former Union Minister, said,”The case of Bihar and Maharashtra are different. In Bihar, BJP leadership had clearly stated before the polls that not matter who gets more MLAs, the chief minister will only be Nitish Kumar. The BJP kept the word after the election.

Danve said he was present at the meeting where Amit Shah said the chief ministerial decision will be taken after the elections. “I was present at the meeting where our leader Amit Shah said the elections will be fought under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. At the same time, he said the decision regarding the chief ministerial post will be taken jointly by leaders of the three parties after the election,” he said.

BJP spokesperson Pravin Darekar said, “As a BJP worker, I want to state that the people of Maharashtra have given the mandate in favour of Devendra Fadnavis. And therefore all BJP workers feel that Fadnavis should be chief minister.”

Story continues below this ad

The Shiv Sena leaders however hit back, saying Eknath Shinde should continue in the saddle. Sena spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said, “The Mahayuti fought the Maharashtra election under the leadership of Eknath Shinde. He was the Mahayuti’s chief ministerial face. The Ladki Bahin Yojana and other public shemes that he brought in have benefited all the three parties.”

Another Sena leader Naresh Mhaske, MP, said, “There are precedents that those under whom elections are fought are made the chief minister. BJP and NDA have set such examples elsewhere in the country. And we hope the same pattern will continue in Maharashtra as well

Another Sena leader Bharat Gogawale said, “Entire Maharashtra has seen the way Eknath Shinde has performed in last two and half years. And therefore we feel he should be given another opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “The chief minister of Mahayuti will be decided in Delhi. They must have already taken a decision. They have a big majority. The BJP alone has close to 140 MLAs. Their alliance partners have around 100 MLAs. Therefore, whoever is named by Delhi as the chief minister, they will have accept it.

Story continues below this ad

Asked about the formula in which all three parties will share the chief ministerial post, Raut said, “It was their internal matter…I woudn’t like to comment.” However, Raut added BJP is known for not keeping its promise.

An NCP spokesperson said the party has already conveyed to the BJP leadership that their first preference for chief minister post was Devendra Fadnavis. “Our party has conveyed to BJP leadership that its first preference for chief ministerial post would be Devendra Fadnavis,” the spokesperson said.

Fadnavis has already served as the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2014-2019. And then he was the chief minister for 48 hours after NCP leader Ajit Pawar had stage a rebellion and joined hands with BJP in 2019. After the Uddhav Thackeray government fell in 2022, Fadnavis was made the deputy chief minister and Eknath Shinde the chief minister.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement

You May Like

Advertisement