On deadlock with Shiv Sena, Devendra Fadnavis gives an assurance

india

Updated: Jul 17, 2020 06:03 IST

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday assured that a new government will be formed in the state soon amid a deadlock with ally Shiv Sena.

“The deadlock will end and a new government will be formed soon,” Fadnavis was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. The CM was speaking in Akola where he is reviewing crop damage due to rains.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, who is also visiting farmers affected by the rains, said in people will come to know in the next few days if his party will be in power.

There was another twist to the political drama on Sunday when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said he got a messagefrom Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

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“I have received a message from Sanjay Raut a while ago. I was in a meeting so could not respond. This is the first time after elections that he has contacted me. I will call him in a while,” Ajit Pawar was quoted as saying by ANI.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Shiv Sena claimed that if the BJP doesn’t take it on board the regional party will stake claim to form the government.

“Being the second-largest party, Shiv Sena will claim to form the government after BJP fails to prove majority. Our tally will reach 170 with the help of NCP, Congress and others,” said the editorial.

NCP boss Sharad Pawar is scheduled to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday. Pawar had on Saturday held a meeting with NCP leaders over possibility of forming a government.

The BJP and Shiv Sena had a pre-poll alliance in Maharashtra but the allies have been unable to reach a middle ground on government formation.

Sena wants a seat-sharing formula with the BJP where the chief minister’s post is held by the parties for two and a half years each. BJP maintains that there is no such arrangement.

BJP won 105 seats— 40 seats short of the majority mark— in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly emerging as the single largest party. Shiv Sena won 56 seats, NCP 54 and Congress 44.