The fate of Devendra Fadnavis as the Maharashtra Chief Minister hangs in the balance as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said in a press conference today that the new chief minister of the state will be decided after consultation with their alliance partner BJP.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray: The 50-50 formula was decided. Discussions should be held and then it should be decided that who would be the Chief Minister (of Maharashtra). pic.twitter.com/YuSvKDZfhe
— ANI (@ANI) October 24, 2019
Citing a pre-poll agreement with the BJP, Thackeray said that based on the 50-50 formula agreed upon, inter-party discussions should be held and on that basis, Chief Minister of the state would be decided.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said that in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, he and BJP president Amit Shah had hammered out a “50-50 formula” based on which the two parties had agreed to select the next chief minister of Maharashtra. Uddhav Thackeray said, “It is now time to remind everyone about the formula and implement it.”
While Thackeray did not divulge the modalities of his party’s agreed formula with the BJP, he did say that if need be, Home Minister Amit Shah will himself come to get the things sorted. Rumours are rife that the agreement between the two frenemies was about sharing the chief ministerial position for a period of 2.5 years. There are also rumours that say that the 50-50 formula may allude to the equal number of ministries in the cabinet for the two parties.
The Shiv Sena-BJP is currently hovering around 160 mark, maintaining a comfortable majority required to form a government in the 288-member Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. As per latest data on EC website, BJP was winning and leading in 103 seats, while it was 56 for Shiv Sena.
