Sena wants CM post, BJP in fix

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, October 25

The Shiv Sena has put a question mark over a second term for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with the party staking claim for the top job.

“Shiv Sena will surely have its Chief Minister,” Member of Parliament Anil Desai said after a meeting with party chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence Matoshree this morning. The party has formed a negotiating team comprising Desai himself, party colleague Subhash Desai, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut and others to hold talks with the BJP, according to sources.  BJP president Amit Shah is to shortly visit Matoshree where details of the government formation is to be discussed, Shiv Sena sources said. 

On Thursday, Thackeray said Shah had given him an assurance about sharing power equally before the Sena and the BJP agreed to contest the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Apart from key ministries like Home, Finance and Public Works Department, the Shiv Sena is demanding that the post of Chief Minister also be rotated among the two parties. “Since the BJP has already had its Chief Minister for the past five years, it’s the turn of the Shiv Sena to have its CM for 2.5 years,” a Shiv Sena leader said today.

In Worli, the Shiv Sena put up posters hailing Aaditya Thackeray as the next Chief Minister. The younger Thackeray won from Worli after becoming the first of his family to contest an election. On Saturday, Thackeray will meet with the Shiv Sena’s newly elected MLAs at Matoshree where he is expected to share more information on the future of the next government. 

Meanwhile, in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Sena took a dig at its senior ally, saying there was no “maha janadesh” and the outcome was in fact a rap on the knuckles for those high on “arrogance of power”. Sena MP Sanjay Raut posted a cartoon on Twitter to take a dig at his party’s senior alliance partner. The cartoon shows a tiger (Shiv Sena’s symbol) wearing a clock locket (NCP’s symbol) sniffing a lotus (BJP’s symbol). While the post is captioned “bura na maano Diwali hai” to denote it was made in jest, the underlying message echoes what former CM Prithviraj Chavan sought to convey about the Sena, NCP and Congress coming together to prevent the BJP from retaining power in Maharashtra.

NCP ready to join hands with Sena

• A day after Nationalist Congress Party chieftain Sharad Pawar said the mandate was for the Congress-NCP to sit in the Opposition, the party on Friday offered to back a government headed by the Shiv Sena 
• “The Shiv Sena has to choose between the Deputy CM's post offered by the BJP or the CM's post offered by us,” NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said

Cong, too, keeps options open

• Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat too indicated that his party was open to all possibilities, even though he said his party's mandate was to play the role of a responsible Opposition
• “We have not received any proposal from the Shiv Sena. If a proposal comes, we will get in touch with our party high command and take a call,” Thorat said

Shivaji descendant ‘down but not out’

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24 women MLAs, 2 more than 2014 

Mumbai: Twentyfour women have made it to the Maharashtra Assembly, two more than the outgoing House. Of the 24 women MLAs, half are first-timers. The outgoing Assembly has 22 women legislators. Fourteen women MLAs belong to the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. The Congress had fielded 14 women of which five won. PTI