Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was on Wednesday unanimously elected as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legislative party in the state.
Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar was elected as the party’s chief whip in the Assembly.
Later in the day, Fadnavis, along with Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde, met Governor CP Radhakrishnan in the Raj Bhavan and staked claim to form the government in the state.
It was also announced that the Mahayuti alliance had picked Fadnavis to be the next chief minister of Maharashtra.
The Mahayuti alliance comprising the BJP, the Shiv Sena group led by Shinde and the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar won the state Assembly election on November 23 by a landslide, securing 230 out of 288 seats.
The BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats. The Shinde Sena won in 57 seats and Ajit Pawar’s NCP group won in 41 constituencies.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the NCP group led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress – won 46 seats.
On November 27, Shinde, currently the caretaker chief minister, said that he would support whatever decision Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would take on the chief minister’s post.
“I told PM Modi, Amit Shah that they should not see me as a hindrance,” he had told reporters.
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