While the incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde from Shiv Sena and his Deputy Ajit Pawar from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are leaving no stone unturned to retain their positions, after the just concluded Maharashtra polls, another deputy CM, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis has emerged as front runner to be the next chief CM of Maharashtra, for the second time.
As per the `musical chair option' for the MahaYuti faction Shinde could be deputy CM with Pawar, and then they may take turns later to be CM, as party insiders said that they will not back down from their claims since they supported the BJP to come in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold by breaking their parent parties.
Sources said that the BJP's top leadership has reportedly cleared the names of Fadnavis as CM, and the other two as Dy CMs, and have approved of the arrangement for the next government, Shinde will get 12 ministers and the NCP is likely to get 10 berths, sources said.
Fadnavis will serve as CM for the first two-and-a-half years, after which Eknath Shinde will assume the role for the remainder of the term and once Fadnavis steps down as CM, he is expected to be appointed the BJP's national president.
Party sources said Shinde, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are scheduled to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, and a formal announcement about the new government will be made after the meeting.
MahaYuti alliance scripted a historic victory in Maharashtra assembly elections by winning 235 seats in the 288-member House. The BJP led the Mahayuti's victory by winning 132 seats - the highest among all allies. Shinde Sena won 57 seats and Ajit Pawar-led NCP won 41 seats in the election.
After June 2022, during political turmoil in Maharashtra, BJP took a decision and picked Eknath Shinde as the CM of Maharashtra after he spearheaded a coup of sorts for CM Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government by rebelling, along with over 39 party MLAs who moved from Mumbai to Surat to Goa, and finally back to Mumbai. Shortly after this Ajit Pawar broke ranks from the Sharad Pawar NCP and joined the NDA.
