Two days ahead of the counting of votes in the Maharashtra, post-poll posturing began in both the ruling MahaYuti and Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) camps on Thursday, even as the both the parties started reaching out to the rebels and independents to rope in and boost their final winning tallies.
While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders began to clamour for its senior Devendra Fadnavis being chosen as the Chief Minister if the MahaYuti gets a majority in the polls, which many BJP leaders claimed was a certainty. The Shinde Sena began pushing for the nomination of its president Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister, a post he is currently
holding.
Queried about the Chief Ministerial candidate within the MY, State BJP president Chandrashekar Bawankule said: “Our workers want Fadnavis to be the chief minister. Similarly the Shiv Sena feels it should be Shinde or for that matter NCP workers want Ajit Pawar as chief minister…once the results are out the BJP high command and the leaderships of the other parties would take a call.”
Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said that his party was all for Shinde returning as the chief minister. “We feel Shinde should be the chief minister once again ,” he said.
Responding to a question on the nomination of the CM candidate, Fadnavis - who is the number one aspirant for the CM’s post, said: “After the results are out, the leaders of MahaYuti constituents will sit across and decide on the chief ministerial candidate”.
However, Congress’ Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar said that the MVA partner that bags the highest number of seats “will be a natural claimant to the post of CM”. On state Congress president Nana Patole’s suggestion that there will be a Congress-led government in the state, Raut said: “The Congress high command has said that if he is becoming the CM, then Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should announce it…After we will sit together, we will sit across and confirm if Nana Patole has made a suggestion that there should be a Congress-led government in the state and whether Nana Patole has the Congress high command’s backing. “
Notwithstanding the confidence of a comfortable majority being expressed by the ruling MahaYuti leaders, the MVA leaders said that out of 288 seats, they would cross 160 seats. “The MVA will win anywhere from 160 to 165 seats in the polls,” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said.
“Together with the help of our allies and smaller parties like the PWP, Samajwadi Party and the Left parties. The MVA expects to cross the majority mark. There will be a stable government in the state. I can say this very confidently,” Raut said.
In a related development, Congress general secretary Ramesh Chennithala has called a meeting of party leaders on Friday. He will also confabulate with the MVA leaders. Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat and state NCP president Jayant Patil are reaching out to the rebels from the respective parties. “We will need the help of rebels in case we fall short of numbers. That’s why our leaders are contacting the rebels so that their support can be enlisted formally on Saturday,” a senior Congress leader said.
