As counting trends for Maharashtra Assembly polls showed a clear mandate for the NDA's Mahayuti, incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was asked the big question: Who will be the Chief Minister?
Asked about the BJP's stand that whoever has the bigger poll score will name the Chief Minister, Mr Shinde replied, "Let the final results come in...in the same way as we fought elections together, all three parties will sit together and take a decision."
It is a big day for Eknath Shinde. Three years after he led a rebellion that split the Shiv Sena, joined hands with the BJP and became Chief Minister, he has pulled off a comprehensive victory over the faction led by his former leader Uddhav Thackeray. While Mr Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) leads on 18 seats, the Shinde Sena is ahead on 56. This is a remarkable improvement over its performance in the Lok Sabha polls just months ago, when it won 7 seats, just behind Team Thackeray's score of nine. This win gives a clear edge to the Shinde camp in the Sena vs Sena identity fight.
But will Mr Shinde retain the Chief Minister post? His ally BJP is leading on 127 seats out of the 148 it contested and a buzz of Devendra Fadnavis returning to the top post is doing the rounds. Mr Fadnavis, BJP's tallest leader in the state, is the incumbent Deputy Chief Minister. When Mr Shinde led the Sena mutiny that led to the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray government, Mr Fadnavis had made peace with the No. 2 post. But with the BJP winning such a massive mandate, it is unlikely to be generous this time.
Mr Shinde does not have many bargaining chips either. The other ally in Mahayuti, Ajit Pawar's NCP, has performed well and the BJP needs just one out of its two allies to keep power. This means Mr Shinde may dig in its heels in the post-polls discussion on ministerial berths, but does not have a lot of leverage to demand the top post.
Overall, the NDA is ahead on 225 seats in the 288-member Assembly, with the Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi trailing far behind at 55.
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