MUMBAI: The ‘Devendra Fadnavis or Eknath Shinde‘ conundrum continues for Mahayuti on the question of who should be the new CM even as there are indications that BJP would not want to delay the return of Devendra Fadnavis to Varsha, the CM’s official residence in Mumbai.
Shinde would have been a shoo-in as CM had the poll results thrown up a modest majority for Mahayuti, but the scale of BJP’s performance has transformed the party’s outlook.It would like to leverage the numbers it has to anoint Fadnavis as CM as it believes he scripted the big win after playing second fiddle to Shinde for 2.5 years as dy CM.
Though this will not please the Shinde-led Sena as the poll campaign was carried out under his leadership, BJP’s brass is reportedly pushing for a change. It acknowledges Shinde’s leadership, the success of his Ladki Bahin initiative and his persona as a man of action, but it believes the win has equally been that of Hindutva forces best articulated during campaigns by PM Modi, Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath. Ajit Pawar‘s NCP too is in favour of Fadnavis taking over as CM, sources said. They said RSS has its own view, pushing subtly for Fadnavis.