New Delhi / Devendra Fadnavis elected leader of Maharashtra BJP legislative party

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took the first step towards government formation in Maharashtra with its MLAs electing Devendra Fadnavis as the leader of the legislative party.

All the 105 BJP MLAs legislators were present in meeting held at Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party vice president Avinash Rai Khanna were present in the meet as central observers.

Fadnavis thanked MLAs for reposing faith in him and giving him another chance to serve the state.He also thanked Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. He said the mandate in Maharashtra is for the “grand alliance” and talks with the Sena will be completed in “two-three days.”

State BJP president Chandrakant Patil proposed Fadnavis’s name which was seconded by senior party leaders Sudhir Mungantiwar, Haribhau Bagade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Mangalorabhat Lodha.

The Sena had been insisting on a “50-50” formula with the BJP where both the parties share the chief minister’s post for or two-and-a-half years each.

Fadvanis had hardened his stand on Tuesday and said the BJP has never agreed to the “50-50” formula and he will be chief minister for the next five years.

Sena boss Uddhav Thackeray had said that the seat-sharing formula was agreed upon when Sena and BJP decided to fight the April-May Lok Sabha polls in an alliance.

After the comments by Fadnavis, Thackeray cancelled a meeting with BJP on Tuesday evening over government formation. Senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut said there was nothing to talk about after the Fadnavis’s remarks.

On Wednesday, Raut, who has been continuously attacking ally BJP, said “what will be, will be, it is Maharashtra’s fate”.

“Today, there is an NCP legislative party meeting. I don’t know about BJP meeting but there is no meeting of Shiv Sena with its MLAs today. Everybody has to call for a party meeting and elect its legislative party leader,” Raut was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Wednesday morning.

Insiders from both the BJP and Sena camps had said that informal communication about the number of ministerial berths had begun between the two parties.

The BJP has stood firm on the CM’s post so Sena has now indicated it would want equal number of ministerial berths and key portfolios in the government, said a Sena leader familiar with the developments.

BJP and Sena fought the assembly elections in Maharashtra in an alliance. BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly while Sena won 56.