Race between 2 'marathi-manoos' for Maharashtra CM's post

The fate of next Government in Maharashtra still hanging in balance, as no clear picture emerged on Wednesday as to who will don the CM’s post. As per media reports, State BJP President Devendra Fadnavis continues to be the best-bet. But, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has also emerged as a front-runner in certain section of the party.

Now the race to Chief Minister’s post is circling around this two “Marathi-manoos”, as both Fadnavis and Gadkari comes from the same state, Nagpur and also belongs to same caste, Brahmin. Not only that, both are known to be quite close to BJP’s ideologue partner Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is also headquartered in Nagpur. Media reported that, RSS itself in dilemma over the Maharashtra stalemate.

It has already decided to stay out of the Government formation issue by saying that BJP state leadership will decide who will be the Chief Minister, which clearly stated that it doesn't want to go in ant debate with BJP leadership viz., Narendra Modi. Furthermore, a section of media also reported that BJP has been successful in silencing the RSS by putting their confidante ML Khattar as Haryana CM.

It has been learnt that, a group of about 40 lawmakers met union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday, urging him to return from Delhi to lead his home state. But, reports claimed Fadnavis’ “loyalists” as saying that Gadkari’s show is only a “show-off”, since Devendra is surly going to be the next CM of the state. Gadkari though has officially denied any chief ministerial ambitions but one of his comments created the hype.

On Tuesday, Gadkari said that "I'm happy in Delhi. We will take a decision about the leadership in the next few days. All I can say now is that I'll play whatever role I am given." Furthurmore, his meeting with the BJP MLAs was being seen as the former BJP president throwing his hat into the Maharashtra ring.

According to media reports, Gadkari met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday at the latter's residence in Delhi. They reportedly discussed the choices available for government formation in Maharashtra. After the meeting, Gadkari left for Nagpur to hold discussions with RSS top brass on possible options.

As far as the BJP central leadership is concerned, selecting the CM alone won’t solve the riddle. The party has also to decide as to take which party along to claim Government. In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, BJP has won 122 seats, 23 short of a majority. Shiv Sena, which has emerged as the second largest party, bagged 63 seats. NCP has 41 in its kitty.

Though BJP snapped ties with its erstwhile ally Shiv Sena just ahead of the elections, still Uddhav Thackeray’s party is the “natural choice” as post-poll partner. But, Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) gave a new dimension when it offered unconditional outside support to BJP for Government formation.

BJP now is weighing options. “Keeping all its options open,” Jaitley is quoted by media as saying while he referred to the congratulatory telephone calls made by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah.

As a result, Shiv Sena has found itself at loggerheads, media reported. It has been learnt that, Shiv Sena leaders Anil Desai and Subhash Desai, who arrived in Delhi Tuesday night for discussions with the BJP leadership over government formation in Maharashtra. They were supposed to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP general secretary JP Nadda.

Media reported that they returned back to Mumbai on Wednesday morning without meeting BJP leaders. Rajnath and Nadda were supposed to visit Mumbai for discussion on Government formation on Monday. But they postponed their visit till Diwali. Now, the precarious situation may end once Rajnath arrives in Maharashtra. Till then, the fate of next Maharashtra CM shall remain suspended.