Aakhir Tak – In Shorts:
- Before Maharashtra’s elections, Devendra Fadnavis hinted, without naming anyone, that CM Eknath Shinde could be the face of Mahayuti.
- Fadnavis challenged the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi to announce their chief ministerial candidate.
- Seat-sharing discussions within Mahayuti are in the final stages, with Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar also harboring CM aspirations.
Aakhir Tak – In Depth:
Ahead of the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis suggested that Eknath Shinde, the current Chief Minister, could be Mahayuti’s face for the CM post. Without explicitly naming Shinde, Fadnavis, at an event, stated, “Our Chief Minister is sitting here,” implying that Shinde may likely continue in the role post-elections.
Fadnavis also took a dig at the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), challenging them to announce their chief ministerial face. The MVA, comprising Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena (UBT), and Congress, has refrained from declaring a candidate so far. Fadnavis remarked that the MVA isn’t confident in their leadership’s ability to win the election, thus avoiding naming their CM face.
Fadnavis’s remarks seem calculated, as both he and Ajit Pawar reportedly harbor their own ambitions of becoming Maharashtra’s Chief Minister. Eknath Shinde, meanwhile, avoided directly addressing the issue, emphasizing that the two-year performance of the Mahayuti government speaks for itself.
The MVA has similarly avoided naming their candidate. Uddhav Thackeray, when questioned earlier, stated that MVA would reveal its candidate after Mahayuti declares theirs. This growing political tension adds fuel to the race as Maharashtra heads to the polls on November 20, with vote counting scheduled for November 23, alongside Jharkhand’s elections.
