assembly-elections

Updated: Oct 25, 2019 18:41 IST

Shiv Sena has upped the ante over the position of Maharashtra chief minister on Friday with some of its newly elected MLAs, in unison with party mouthpiece Saamna, clearly stating that the BJP-Sena alliance dynamics had changed after the Thursday results left the BJP with fewer number of seats in the Maharashtra assembly than 2014.

Friday began with Saamana declaring that “the keys to power” were with Shiv Sena, in further articulation of Uddhav’s Thursday demand for “equitable sharing of power” under the 50-50 agreement he claims to have with the BJP.

While Uddhav had held “the question of the CM’s post” to be an “important” one, his party MLAs on Friday, expressed a desire to see a Sena chief minister at the helm.

Senior Sena leader and Kopri-panchpakhadi MLA Eknath Shinde said, “Aaditya ji decided to take the plunge in electoral politics and has been successful. It is natural that the Sena workers and leaders would want to see a Thackeray on a big post. There is nothing wrong with that expectation.”

The newly elected Sena MLAs are meeting Uddhav at Matoshree on Saturday afternoon to discuss the future course of action and have sought a Sena chief minister this time, party functionaries confirmed.

MLA Gulabrao Patil from Jalgaon Rural said the party will discuss “all options” in Saturday’s meeting, now that “equations have changed”.

Sena legislator from Kalina, Sanjay Potnis echoed Saamna, “The keys to power are with the Shiv Sena now,” before adding that the CM post among other key issues will be up for discussion on Saturday.

The Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, earlier on Friday, took a dig at partner BJP by claiming, there was no “maha janadesh” (massive mandate), a reference to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ state-wide poll-campaign named “Mahajanadesh Yatra”.

“People have said beware… Maharashtra doesn’t accept arrogance of power,” the editorial said, adding, “our feet were always on the ground.”

The editorial said further, “The NCP bounced back and crossed the 50-seat mark, while a leaderless Congress won 44 seats. The results were a warning to rulers to not show arrogance of power… it’s a rap on their knuckles.”

That’s not all, as per a news agency, a poster projecting Aaditya Thackeray as future chief minister of Maharashtra, too came up in Worli--the constituency from which he won by over 65 thousand votes.