BJP Builds Suspense over Next Maharashtra CM
Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis with BJP leader Chandrakant Patil. Image credit @Devendra_Office
BJP Keeps Devendra Fadnavis on Tenterhooks
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 27: Even after four days of winning a landslide, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is still mulling over to decide the next chief minister of Maharashtra. Tired of waiting for the decision from the BJP, the Mahayuti leaders on Wednesday loudly began speaking in favour of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as the successor of Eknath Shinde for the top post in Mumbai Mantralaya.
The BJP appears keeping Fadnavis on tenterhooks by delaying a decision. Fadnavis reached Nagpur on Wednesday. Nagpur is his hometown as well as the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS).
Naresh Mhaske of the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde on Wednesday spoke in favour of Fadnavis. “We are not like Uddhav Thackeray that we will be jilted if the BJP takes the CM post. We are in favour of Fadnavis to become the chief minister,” said the Shiv Sena (Shinde) leader.
Shinde already dropped hints that he is no more in the race to become the chief minister of Maharashtra. “I will back the choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Shinde said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The Nationalist Congress Party of Ajit Pawar has also been reported to be in favour of Fadnavis as the next chief minister. Shinde is also known to have good chemistry with Fadnavis.
Yet, the BJP is taking time to decide on the head of the Mahayuti. Jharkhand will host the swearing-in ceremony of the new chief minister tomorrow. Jharkhand and Maharashtra verdicts had come on Saturday.
“The Central BJP leadership doesn’t like to be dictated on making a particular kind of choice. The situation in Mumbai is somewhat parallel to the events leading to anointment of Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017,” said a senior BJP functionary.
The apparent build up of pressure on the central BJP leadership is seen going against Fadnavis. Also, Fadnavis is known to be a poster boy of the RSS. Lately, the relations of the BJP and the RSS had been stoking speculation mills.
Besides, the central BJP leadership in its choices in the last one decade mostly favoured the political leaders from the other backward castes (OBCs) and Kshatriyas in some pockets. Fadnavis is a Brahmin by caste.
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