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Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister elect of Maharashtra who met Governor CP Radhakrishnan and staked claim to form government today, provided nuggets of his last evening's meeting with Eknath Shinde that airbrushed the recent logjam over government formation. Appearing before the media after the meeting with the Governor, both played down the two-week gap between the election results and the naming of the Chief Minister.
Giving "special thanks" to Eknath Shinde, Mr Fadnavis said, "Yesterday I requested Eknath Shinde to remain in the cabinet... which I hope he would... The Chief Minister post is just a technical agreement between us... we have been together to take decisions and will continue to do so".
"Two-and-a-half year ago, Fadnavis recommended my name to become the Chief Minister. This time, we recommend his name to become the Chief Minister," said Mr Shinde, who had gone off to his village in Satara after declaring that he would not be an "obstacle" to the BJP decision. Last evening, he was admitted in a hospital for what his team called a "routine check-up".
The meeting between the two contenders for the top post paved the way for the BJP legislators' meet today where Mr Fadnavis was named as chief. It ends the two-week suspense over the top post that had drawn jeers from the Opposition.
With the BJP's massive score in the assembly election, Mr Fadnavis was seen by many as an automatic decision. But there was resistance from Mr Shinde's faction of the Shiv Sena, which pitched for a second innings for their chief.
The Sena claimed that it was the Shinde government's welfare schemes that steered the Mahayuti to victory. Some of his leaders openly questioned why Maharashtra cannot be another Bihar, where Nitish Kumar plays a dominant role despite better performance by the BJP in elections. And even after Mr Shinde said he would accept whatever the BJP decides, some leaders of his party continued their push for the top post.
Mr Shinde - who was rewarded with the Chief Minister's post in 2022 after he split the Shiv Sena and joined forces with the BJP to form government -- is yet to declare whether he would be part of the government.
Though the former Chief Minister has run out of cards to play -- given the BJP's mammoth score and Ajit Pawar's decision to back Mr Fadnavis that would give the ruling alliance an easy majority in the assembly -- his silence over a cabinet post is seen by many as a sign of impending turbulence.
Mr Fadnavis, though, appeared calm today.
The 54-year-old, who was accompanied by Mr Shinde and Ajit Pawar for the meeting with the Governor, later said: "We have submitted a claim to form a new cabinet in the state as per the rules. After the Governor accepted the claim, we have been given the time for the oath ceremony on December 5 at 5.30 pm, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
The decision on the cabinet berths will be taken this evening, he added.
The Mahayuti scored a massive victory in the state polls, winning 230 out of 288 seats in the Assembly. The BJP won 132 seats, the Sena 57 and NCP 41.