Mumbai: While Devendra Fadnavis is being widely seen as the pick for the Maharashtra Chief Minister post, members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) continue to huddle ahead the swearing-in ceremony of the new government in the state, scheduled on December 5.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Monday flew to Delhi. But Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis remained in Mumbai as they met workers and leaders of their parties. According to reports, an official announcement of the CM name is expected on December 4 when the state BJP legislature party will elect its new leader at a meeting in Vidhan Bhawan.
Amid such developments, Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant on Monday declined speculations of him being the deputy chief minister of the state, saying that he was “not in the race for any ministerial position”
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders claimed that Devendra Fadnavis had been chosen to be the Maharashtra CM, the party named Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani as central observers for BJP’s state legislature party’s meeting. Besides the CM post, there’s also suspense over the deputy CM. The two main allies of the BJP in the Mahayuti alliance — the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party — are each tipped to be given deputy CM positions, reports claimed.