Maharashtra CM Face Battle: On Shiv Sena's Bihar Gambit, BJP Says No Parallels

Maharashtra CM News: The Mahayuti alliance secured a majority in the recent assembly elections held on November 20. The Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the results for all 288 constituencies on November 28, raising questions about the Chief Minister's post. Amid intense negotiations within the alliance for the Chief Minister post Between BJP's Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena candidate Eknath Shinde, the Bharatiya Janata Party indicated that there is no question of replicating the Bihar formula for the chief ministership in the state.

BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla told The Indian Express that the saffron party is not going to follow the Bihar model in Maharashtra. He explained that, unlike in Bihar, where the party committed to making Nitish Kumar the Chief Minister ahead of the elections and honoured that commitment, no such arrangement will be made in Maharashtra.

He said, “In Maharashtra, there is no reason for such a commitment as we have a stronger organisational base and leadership. Above all, the party never gave any commitment of continuing with Eknath Shinde as CM after the elections. On the contrary, the top leadership maintained throughout the elections that a decision on the CM would be based on the electoral outcome.”

Earlier, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena demanded that the ‘Bihar pattern’ in Maharashtra. The party leader said, “We feel that the Bihar pattern should be implemented in the state for the Maharashtra chief ministerial position and Eknath Shinde should become the CM again.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde resigned from the top position in a constitutional obligation but the race for CM post continued in the state.