MNS chief Raj Thackeray suggested that the next chief minister of Maharashtra would be from the BJP which he exercised towards Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis was denied his second term in 2019 when Thackeray resigned from the NDA to stake his claim with the Congress-NCP alliance. The incumbent, BJP, came back to power but handed over power to the chief minister’s post to Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena. The Mahayuti coalition has not stated who it wants for the presidential seat in the event of victory. BJP will take part in 148 seats, Shinde’s Sena 80, and NCP will fight 52.
Discussions are prevailing about the weaknesses of an internal change after the election too. NCP’s Ajit Pawar is also interested in the CM post and may consider options if his party gets adequate number of seats. NCP’s Nawab Malik pointedly added that Pawar could be the king-maker in the future of a new government, to the extent that Pawar could establish his terms.
Recalling the political volatility of Maharashtra, Malik said, “Look at the recent election 2019 no one saw that coming so no one is an enemy for ever, no one is a friend for ever.” He also said that independent candidates could emerge as key players in a neck-to-neck match.
In the current assembly elections, Raj Thackeray’s MNS is fighting 138 seats independently while it had backed the Mahayuti for the Loksabha polls. Remarkably, Raj’s son Amit Thackeray is in the fray from Mahim and even though BJP is expected to support MNS too Shinde has a candidate in the field. Responding to questions on both, the NCP and Shiv Sena splits, Raj said that both have actually loosened internally to fracture, but emphasised that whether the outside world pushes or not, there should be no split inside the party.
