BJP anoints Fadnavis as CM designate, narrows down options before Sena

Mumbai:

In what was a foregone conclusion, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday anointed Devendra Fadnavis as its Legislature Party (BJPLP) leader, giving clear indications to its quarreling ally the Shiv Sena that Fadnavis is its Chief Minister designate. By offering it 13 cabinet ministerial berths, Deputy Chief Ministership (DCM) and ruling out any negotiations on key ministries like Home, Urban Development and Finance and posts like Legislative Assembly Speaker the BJP has narrowed down bargaining options before the Sena. Alarmed by the stubborn stance taken by the BJP, the Sena too has convened the meeting of its newly elected 56 MLAs to elect its legislature party leader on October 31.

With the BJP hardening its stance and making Sena’s diatribe against its leadership as an excuse and watering down its offer to Deputy Chief Ministership, minus key portfolio’s, it remains to be seen as to whether the  Sena will once again swallow its pride. The Sena on the other hand is trying for a hard bargain as it too realizes that the BJP too has limited options other than the Sena to form the next government and reach the magical majority mark of 147.

In the previous BJP led government, Fadnavis did offer the Deputy Chief Ministership to the Sena at the fag end of his governments tenure. The Sena did accept the Deputy Chairmans post in the Legislative Council, but turned down the DCM post arguing that the tenure was short enough. The BJP leadership is in no mood to part-take with key, powerful ministries like Home, Urban Development, Revenue, Finance, Energy and Rural Development.

Followed by the election of the Legislature Party leaders of respective political parties, the next on the agenda of the newly constituted 14^th legislative assembly would be the three day special session of the state legislature wherein all the 288 newly elected MLAs will be administered oath of membership of the house. The special session is likely to be convened from November 4, whereas the term of the 13^th assembly is to end on November 9.

Fadnavis referring to the 2004 and 2009 assembly elections where the fractured mandate had delayed the government formation, he however stressed on the fact that it was after 1995 that the BJP has returned back with enhanced mandate. At the same time Fadnavis harped on the point that the mandate given by the electorate was for the Mahayuti and it will be a Mahayuti government that will come to power soon.

Moving the motion for the nomination of Devendra Fadnavis as the BJP legislature party leader, state BJP president Chandrakant Patil underscored the point for the Sena that after having given a stable government for the past five years, the party had no second option other than Fadnavis. His motion was seconded by Sudhir Mungantiwar and 11 other BJP MLAs. 

The meeting was attended by Vinod Tawde, Chandrashekhar Bawakule and Pankaja Munde, whereas Eknath Khadse remained absent. While, Tawde and Munde attended the meeting as representatives of the BJPs Core Committee, Khadse another core committee member was nowhere to be seen. Munde argued that she was there as member of the partys core committee. In the group of 105 BJP MLAs, Fadnavis apparently now has no competitor to the throne that appears to be within his grasp. There were new faces in the crowd like Shivendra Raje Bhosale (Satara) and Nitesh Rane (Kankavli).

Accepting the unanimous, unchallenged decision, Fadnavis twice did not forget to thank Sena president Uddhav Thackeray while reiterating that the next, new government will be that of the Mahayuti. He argued that the main and immediate task of his government in waiting is to make Maharashtra drought free and complete the unfinished projects of his previous government. The BJPLP leader stressed upon the fact that his government will function on the tenants laid down by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and as per the constitution laid down by Dr B R Ambedkar. The message was loud and clear to both the Maratha and Dalit communities that he wanted to take them along in his second innings.

Sources in the Sena disclosed that Uddhav Thackeray has convened an urgent meeting of his newly elected MLAs on October 31 to elect its new Legislature Party (SSLP) leader and ostensibly discuss the BJP offer. Sources disclosed that opinions are divided within the Sena as to whether it should very early in Aditya Thackeray’s career in legislature with added responsibility of Deputy Chief Ministership. There is another camp in the Sena which prefers him being groomed by senior party leaders like Subhash Desai in the nuances of governance and legislative matters.