Mumbai: Amid bickering between his party and the Shiv Sena over sharing of power in the next Maharashtra government, senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Tuesday said party chief Amit Shah and his Sena counterpart Uddhav Thackeray will finalise the contours of the "50-50 formula".
According to sources in the BJP, the discussion and agreement reached with the Sena on formalising the alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year, was on "equitable distribution of power and not on the post of the chief minister."
File image of BJP's Chandrakant Patil. Twitter@ChDadaPatil
Ever since the results of the 21 October Assembly polls were out, Sena chief Uddhav has been claiming that the 50-50 formula on sharing of power was "agreed upon" between himself, Shah and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Sources in the Sena had said the formula entails rotational chief ministership between the two parties. The Sena has been projecting Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav and a first-time MLA, as the party's face for the chief minister’s post.
However, Fadnavis on Tuesday denied that the Sena was ever assured the post of the chief minister for 2.5 years as part of the power sharing "formula".
When asked about the Sena's demand for equal distribution of ministerial posts, Patil said, "The final 50-50 formula will be decided by our national president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray." Speculation was that Shah might visit Thackeray after the meeting.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and BJP national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna will attend the meeting of the newly-elected MLAs, said Patil. Meanwhile, Patil also distanced himself from the seat-sharing agreement the Thackeray senior has been talking about.
"That formula was proposed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and I am not aware of it," said Patil, who became new president of the BJP after the poll results. Meanwhile, senior sources in the BJP clarified that the discussion and agreement formalised with the Sena ahead of the Lok Sabha polls was on "equitable distribution of power between the two parties and not on the post of the chief minister."
October 29, 2019 at 10:47PM
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