New govt in Maharashtra on 5 Dec , Fadnavis frontrunner for CM: BJP leader

The new government of the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra will be formed on 5 December with Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the frontrunner to become the next chief minister, a senior BJP leader said on 30 November, Saturday.

In the 20 November Maharashtra assembly polls, the Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.

However, even after the announcement of poll results on 23 November, no decision has been made on who will be the new chief minister. Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar met BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah late on Thursday to thrash out a power-sharing pact for the next government in Maharashtra.

A key Mahayuti meeting scheduled on Friday was put off and is likely to take place on Sunday now as caretaker chief minister Shinde headed to his native village in Satara district, delaying the government formation.

The BJP leader, who did not wish to be quoted, said the swearing-in of the new government will take place on 5 December.

Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was the chief minister twice and deputy chief minister in the last government, is the front-runner for the top post, the leader said. But there is no word yet on when the BJP legislature party will meet to elect its new leader.

Shinde has made it clear that he will fully support the BJP leadership’s decision to name the next CM, and that he won't be a hurdle in the process, while Pawar's NCP has backed Fadnavis for the chief minister's post.