Need to form Govt soonest: CM after Shah meet
   Date :05-Nov-2019

 
NEW DELHI :
 
THERE is need to form a Government in Maharashtra at the earliest, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah. As the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena continue their tussle over Government formation in the State, Fadnavis reached here on Monday morning to meet Shah, also the BJP President at his residence, party insiders said. “There is need to form the Government in Maharashtra at the earliest... I am sure, I am confident that the Government will be formed,” Fadnavis told reporters after the meeting. He later met BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav who was in charge of elections in Maharashtra. Unlike the last Assembly elections, the BJP and the Shiv Sena this time fought elections in alliance with each other.
 
The BJP won 105 seats and the Shiv Sena 56. The two parties are caught in a stalemate over the Chief Minister’s post, with the Sena demanding an equal division of the top post’s tenure and the BJP rejecting it. However, officially Fadnavis met Shah to seek more help from the Centre for a package for Maharashtra’s farmers whose crops have been affected by unseasonal rains. BJP leaders say in backchannel talks with Shiv Sena, positive outcome soon: THE BJP and Shiv Sena are engaged in back-channel talks on Government formation and a positive outcome is expected to be announced in a few days, BJP sources said. The positive direction of backchannel talks has put an end to speculation about Government formation, they said. Sources also confirmed that initially, 12 to 14 leaders will take oath as Cabinet Ministers along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
 
They said discussion between the two parties, who fought the Assembly polls in an alliance, was at a “concluding stage” and will be over in the next couple of days. Senior BJP leaders are slated to hold a meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday to “seal the deal”. The BJP sources said “discussions were moving positively” towards the formation of the alliance Government in the State. Another BJP leader Rao Saheb Danve told the media on Monday that his party and Shiv Sena were on good terms and will form a Government soon. “We fought the elections together and we should respect the people’s mandate. We will talk and decide together and the Government will be formed by BJP- Shiv Sena alliance only.” Shiv Sena has said that the two parties had a “50-50” power-sharing agreement before the elections but Devendra Fadnavis later noted that Shiv Sena was not promised post of CM for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was formalised before 2019 LS polls. 
 
‘BJP leaders in favour of re-poll in Mah’
 
MUMBAI WITH the Shiv Sena seeming firm on its demand of sharing the Chief Minister’s post in the next Maharashtra Government, a BJP Minister on Monday said some of his party leaders are willing for a re-election in the State. The BJP leaders expressed this view during a review meeting held in Dhule district on Sunday, State Tourism and FDA Minister Jaykumar Rawal told a television channel. “The party workers said senior leaders of the BJP should not have forged an alliance (with the Sena)...Give us a chance again, we will contest again and win this time,” said Rawal, who is considered close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The meeting in Dhule was attended by several BJP leaders, workers and candidates who contested the recent Assembly polls, he said. “Many of them are angry as we could not contest in some seats due to pact with the Sena and lost with a thin margin in some segments,” the Minister said. The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena are caught in a stalemate over the Chief Minister’s post, with the Sena demanding an equal division of the top post’s tenure and the BJP rejecting it. Unlike the last Assembly elections, the BJP and the Shiv Sena this time fought elections in alliance with each other. The BJP won 105 seats and the Shiv Sena 56. The term of the existing 13th State Assembly ends on November 9.