It’s day 13 since Maharashtra assembly election results were announced and the state is no closer to getting a government. As the November 9 deadline to have a government in place looms, Shiv Sena on Wednesday made it clear that ‘no new proposals will be discussed’ indicating that there was no going back on the 50-50 power sharing demand.
Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said in Mumbai, “We’ll only have discussions on the proposal that we had agreed on before the assembly polls. No new proposals will be exchanged now. BJP and Shiv Sena had an agreement on post of CM before elections and then only we moved ahead for alliance for elections”.
While Sena insists that the two parties had agreed on rotating the chief minister’s position and 50:50 allocation of portfolios before the election, the BJP says no such agreement was discussed.
The BJP and Sena fought the elections together and secured 105 seats and 56 seats respectively, but they have been having trouble in coming to an agreement about portfolios and about a shared Chief Minister deal. The NCP has 54 MLAs and the Congress 44
Raut’s statement comes a day after Maharashtra caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rushed to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur to meet its chief Mohan Bhagwat.
RSS sources said Fadnavis held over a 45-minute closed-door meeting with Bhagwat and his deputy and RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi on the present BJP-Shiv Sena stand off over the government formation in the state.
A senior RSS swayamsevak, who did not wish to be named, said that they discussed various options for formation of government in the state. The possible options included seeking NCP’s help and a faction from the Sena which wants to join hands with the BJP in government formation.