Ahead of Maharashtra poll result, jostling starts for CM post | India News

MUMBAI: Even before assembly poll results could be out, a tiff over CM’s post broke out on Thursday within the Mahayuti as well as in the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
While Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat claimed that Eknath Shinde will continue to remain CM once results are declared on Saturday, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said BJP workers wished that Devendra Fadnavis should be CM. And after state Congress chief Nana Patole said that Congress would be in a leadership position in govt formation, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that if Patole wants to be CM, the Congress high command must announce his name and added that the MVA partners would decide their chief ministerial candidate together.
Amid all the squabbling, Sena minister Deepak Kesarkar also said that “if necessary, Mahayuti will form a govt with the support of independents.”
After most exit polls projected a majority for Mahayuti, Patole said, “MVA govt will be formed in Maharashtra under the leadership of Congress. The way voting trends are emerging, the way people are talking, on that basis, (it can be said that) most of the Congress candidates will be elected. CM will be from MVA.”
Raut said about Patole’s statement with regard to Congress ‘leadership’, “I will not accept this and no one else will accept this. We will sit together and decide if Nana Patole has said this and if Patole has Congress command’s nod. If you are becoming CM, then Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sonia Gandhi should announce it.”
Raut said the MVA will stake claim to form govt in the evening of Nov 23 itself. He said MVA will decide its CM face that day and support of independents will not be needed as MVA will cross 160 seats on its own. Raut rubbished exit polls and described them as “a fraud.”
The chief ministership has been a bone of contention between Congress and Sena (UBT). The Sena (UBT) has constantly been saying MVA should have declared a CM face before the polls. Raut and Patole had face-offs over the issue of chief ministership and seat-sharing in MVA right till the last day of filing nominations.
BJP’s Bawankule said, “Our workers feel Fadnavis should become CM, Shinde’s workers feel he should be CM. The central leadership has to decide.”
Sena’s Shirsat said, “It is true that Chandrashekar Bawankule has said his party’s leader must become CM. This is natural. We have fought the polls with Shinde as the face and people have voted for us, which shows his popularity. People have preferred Shinde’s face. So we feel that it is Shinde’s right to become CM and that he will remain CM. We are sure about this. Whatever decision Shinde takes, we will go with him.”