Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was on Wednesday re-elected leader of the state BJP legislature party. BJP Chief Amit Shah has appointed Narendra Singh Tomar and Avinash Rai Khanna as the Central Observers for the meeting of the BJP Maharashtra Legislature Party.
CM Devendra Fadnavis said, "People voted for the BJP-Sena alliance. The next government will be formed with Sena in the alliance."
All the 105 newly-elected BJP MLAs were present at the meeting, where Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party vice president Avinash Rai Khanna were present as central observers. The meeting was held at Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai. Tomar says no other name was proposed at the BJP legislature party meeting.
A turban-clan Fadnavis thanked party MLAs for reposing faith in him and giving him another chance to serve the state. He also thanked Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. The meeting came in the backdrop of the power sharing tussle between the BJP and Shiv Sena after results of the October 21 Assembly elections were declared on October 24.
Amid bickering between his party and the Shiv Sena over sharing of power in the next Maharashtra government, senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said Amit Shah and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will finalise the contours of the "50:50 formula".
Patil, however, distanced himself from the seat- sharing agreement that Thackeray has been talking about.
"That formula was proposed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections (held earlier this year) and I am not aware of it," said Patil, who became the state BJP president after the parliamentary poll results.
According to sources in the BJP, the discussion and agreement reached with the Sena on formalising the alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls was on "equitable distribution of power and not on the post of the chief minister."
Ever since results of the October 21 Assembly polls were out, Thackeray has been claiming that the 50:50 formula on sharing of power was "agreed upon" between himself, Shah and Fadnavis ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
However, Fadnavis on Tuesday denied that the Sena was ever assured the chief minister's post for two-and-a-half years as part of the power sharing "formula".
The BJP won 105 seats in the Assembly polls and has been wooing 13 Independents and MLAs from smaller parties to shore up its strength in the 288-member House.
The Sena, which won 56 seats, is pushing for rotational chief ministership, an idea rejected by the BJP. Besides, the NCP won 54 seats and the Congress bagged 44 seats in the state polls.
