Maharashtra CM Pick: Day after Mahayuti leader’s meet, Eknath Shinde goes to his village , talks on govt pushed back
A day after the Mahayuti leaders’ meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, caretaker CM Eknath Shinde left for his village Dare Tamb in Mahabaleshwar taluka in Satara district. Sources said the BJP is working on him to get him to accept the deputy CM’s post.
The swearing-in of the Maharashtra cabinet is unlikely until Dec 5 as the talks could only progress after partners agree on the return of BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as CM with nominees of Shiv Sena and NCP as the two deputies.
The swearing-in was earlier expected to be held on Monday. However, the negotiations are unlikely to be wrapped up because of the preoccupation of Amit Shah, who has to balance the competing demands of Mahayuti partners with the DGPs’ conference until Saturday. Sources now expect the oath-taking to be scheduled on Dec 5 at Azad Maidan both because of the tricky nature of Shah’s assignment and the engagements of PM Modi, who is billed to be the star of the show.
The deliberations at Shah’s residence late Thursday night saw outgoing CM Eknath Shinde signing up on the logic that BJP, with 132 MLAs of its own and having lined up another five, was the natural claimant for the CM’s office, sources familiar with the negotiations said.
