Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has invited Devendra Fadnavis of BJP to form the next government in the state, if they are willing to do so and have required numbers. A press release issued today by Raj Bhavan said that the governor has asked Devendra Fadnavis, leader of the largest party BJP, to indicate willingness and ability of his party to form the government in Maharashtra. Today is the last day of the current assembly in Maharashtra, which will be dissolved at midnight.
Press Release from Raj Bhavan pic.twitter.com/fhYwUpvsDj
— Governor of Maharashtra (@maha_governor) November 9, 2019
The statement notes that even after 15 days after results were declared following the assembly elections, no single party or alliance has come forward to form the government. “The Governor has therefore decided to explore the possibility of formation of Government and today asked the leader of the elected members of the single largest party, that is BJP, to convey its willingness and ability to form the government to him,” Raj Bhavan said.
Devendra Fadnavis had resigned from the post of chief minister yesterday a day ahead of his term was scheduled to end today. He had decided to resign as the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, which won a majority with 161 seats together in the assembly elections held last month, failed to arrive at a power-sharing agreement. The governor had asked to continue as acting-CM following his resignation.
BJP and Shiv Sena fought the elections together, and BJP emerged as the single largest party by winning 105 seats, while Shiv Sena won 56 seats. NCP and Congress won 54 and 44 seats each, and the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has a comfortable majority in the 288-member house. But Shiv Sena demanded a 50:50 power-sharing formula, and rotation of chief minister post after 2.5 years, which was not acceptable to BJP. This led to a bitter public spat between the two parties with several Sena leaders abusing BJP and PM Modi. and Uddhav Thackeray announcing that he is open to alliance with any party.
Finally, Fadnavis resigned yesterday, saying that he was hurt by comments of Shiv Sena. He had said that while Uddhav Thackeray didn’t respond to his calls, he approached NCP and Congress for the formation of the government. Fadnavis had said that from the comments of Shiv Sena it is clear that they don’t want to continue their alliance with BJP.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had refuted the claims of Fadnavis, and had claimed that he can install a Shiv Sena CM in Maharashtra without the help of Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis.
