Mumbai: Maharashtra will have a chief minister from the Shiv Sena, senior party leader Sanjay Raut said Friday amid standoff with ally BJP over sharing the top post.
Talking to reporters here, Sanjay Raut said there have been no talks yet between the BJP and the Shiv Sena on government formation.
“The Maharashtra chief minister will be from the Shiv Sena,” asserted Raut. “No ultimatum to the BJP (on government formation). They are big people. If the Sena decides, it can get the required numbers to form a stable government in Maharashtra. People have given mandate to form government on the basis of ‘50:50 formula’ that was reached in front of the people of Maharashtra,” Sanjay Raut, the Rajya Sabha MP added.
In the just-held state polls, the BJP won 105 seats, while the Shiv Sena got 56 in the 288-member Assembly.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led party is demanding the post of Chief Minister for 2.5 years and 50:50 division of portfolios. Both these demands have been rejected by the BJP which has insisted that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will continue to hold the post for the next five years.
It should be stated here that Raut had claimed that he met NCP chief Sharad Pawar late Thursday evening. Hence the statement he gave Friday morning assumes significance in the aftermath of the discussions the two had. The Shiv Sena top brass has time and again indicated that it has no problems in forming a non-BJP government with support from the Congress and the NCP. However, both these parties have so far remained non-committal.
Agencies