MUMBAI: After the thumping victory of the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, the million dollar question now is who would be the next chief minister.
Would the BJP let Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde retain the chief minister’s post as the Mahayuti fought the polls under his leadership, or would it choose to put its own person in the CM’s chair, now that it’s the largest party in the alliance?
BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pointed to party leader Amit Shah’s statement that leaders of the three Mahayuti parties will sit together and take a call. Fadnavis said there is no dispute in the alliance and one of the two—Shinde or Ajit Pawar—would be chosen.
Members of both the Shiv Sena and the BJP camps are confident of their party getting the top post.
“It is interesting to see whether the BJP will do what it did in Bihar (making Nitish Kumar the CM) by choosing Shinde so it can send a message it respects allies even when it has the numbers,” a political observer said.