Team Shinde Says BJP Promised Them Top Post Ahead Of Election: Sources

Eknath Shinde, after opposing Uddhav Thackeray for the better part of two years, has apparently found himself in a spot his rival  occupied in 2019. In a throwback to that year, Mr Shinde's faction of the Shiv Sena has claimed that the BJP had promised them the Chief Minister post ahead of the assembly elections. Top Shiv Sena sources told NDTV Sena was promised the Chief Minister post if Mahayuti secured a majority.

Sources said in a series of meetings with top BJP leaders, it was decided that the BJP would contest the maximum number of seats. 

But irrespective of the number of seats secured by the ruling coalition, Eknath Shinde will continue to be the Chief Minister in case of a victory.

This was the same claim leaders of the undivided Sena had made in 2019, saying the BJP had reneged on the deal after the election victory. Uddhav Thackeray, then the chief of Sena, had then walked out of the alliance and joined hands with the Congress and Sharad Pawar.

Mr Shinde has so far maintained that the leaders of the ruling alliance will sit down and take a call on who would be the Chief Minister.
His party's leaders, though, have stuck to their demand of a second innings for him, claiming it was his government's welfare schemes - particularly the "ladki behen" that powered the Mahayuti to a sweeping victory in the state. 

Some of his leaders have openly questioned why Maharashtra cannot be another Bihar, where Nitish Kumar plays a dominant role despite better performance by the BJP in elections. 

The BJP won 132 seats, the Sena 57 and the NCP 41 in the 288-member assembly, where the majority mark is 145. 

Given its huge number, the BJP needs only one ally to form government in the state and with Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar already declaring his support for frontrunner Devendra Fadnavis, Mr Shinde has been left with few options.