Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said he was resigning as the chief minister after Ajit Pawar, who had offered him support, decided to leave the alliance, a day before the floor test ordered by the Supreme Court.
At a press meet, Fadnavis said he had formed the government because the people's mandate was in favour of the BJP alliance. He avoided staking a claim initially because the Shiv Sena, his ally, had refused to support him. But when Ajit Pawar offered support, he decided to form the government and fulfil the mandate that had been given to his party.
"In elections, the clear majority was given to Mahayuti and BJP got maximum 105 seats. We contested with the Shiv Sena, but this mandate was for the BJP because we won 70 per cent of the seats we contested," Fadnavis, who was Maharashtra CM for three days, explained.
He said that Ajit Pawar's decision to withdraw support Tuesday afternoon had, however, deprived the alliance of the numbers needed to form the government and left him with no choice but to step down from his post.
"We had decided that we will never indulge in horse-trading, that we will never try to break away any MLAs. Those who said that we indulge in horse-trading bought the entire horse stable," Fadnavis told the mediapersons.
Fadnavis blamed the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance of being opportunistic and said their Common Maximum Programme was to keep the BJP out of power.
"We waited for them (Shiv Sena) for a long time but they didn't respond and instead talked to Congress-NCP. People who never stepped outside Matoshree (the Thackeray residence) to meet anyone were going door to door to make a government with NCP and Congress. The hunger for power is such that now Shiv Sena leaders are even willing to ally with Sonia Gandhi. I doubt that this three-wheeler government will be stable but BJP will work as an effective opposition and try to raise the voice of people," he said.
He also reiterated that his party had never offered the Sena the rotational Chief Ministership.
Governor Koshyari on Tuesday appointed BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar the pro tem Speaker.
Kolambkar said the oath to MLAs will be administered in the House on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that party supremo Uddhav Thackeray will be elected the leader of the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance and will be the Chief Minister for the next five years.
There were reports that Balasaheb Thorat will be the new Deputy Chief Minister from the Congress and Jayant Patil could be the NCP's nominee for Deputy Chief Minister.