Proposed Shinde’s Name as Maha CM, Fadnavis Breaks Silence; Says He Wasn’t Prepared for Dy CM Post
Breaking his silence on the surprise announcement of Eknath Shinde as the Maharashtra CM, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said it was him who had proposed the same to the BJP leadership.
Fadnavis, who held the CM post twice in the state, was widely speculated to occupy the top office, but he sprang a surprise when he declared that Shinde – the Shiv Sena strongman whose rebellion brought down Uddhav Thackeray’s government – would be the chief minister and not him.
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“Our leaders Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah and JP Naddaji and with my approval (the decision to make Shinde the CM was taken)…. It will not be wrong if it is said that I took this proposal (to the BJP leadership) that Shinde is made the chief minister and they (the leadership) accepted it,” Fadnavis said.
Another surprise came when Fadnavis was asked by the top BJP leadership to take the deputy CM post after he publicly declared that he wouldn’t be a part of the government.
Talking to reporters in Nagpur, Fadnavis admitted that he was not mentally prepared to assume the post of deputy CM, but changed his decision after a discussion was held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and intervention by BJP president JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah.
The former Maharashtra CM said that his party leadership was of the opinion that he should be a part of the government as it was not right to run the government through an “extra-constitutional authority”.
“It was also decided that I will stay out of the government. But BJP president J P Nadda called me and said the party has decided (to make me the deputy chief minister). Even Union Home Minister Amit Shah also spoke to me,” Fadnavis said, adding that “I changed my decision obeying the orders of my leaders”.
Talking about how the mandate, secured by the BJP-Sena alliance in the 2019 state elections, was stolen, Fadnavis said he joined hands with the Shinde-led Sena faction for a common ideology and not for power.
Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister and Fadnavis as his deputy on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as the CM ahead of the floor test.
During the trust vote on Monday, the Shinde government passed with flying colours securing 164 votes, while 99 voted against it. After the death of a Shiv Sena MLA recently, the current strength of the Assembly is reduced to 287, thus the majority mark is 144.
Last month, Shinde orchestrated a rebellion against the Shiv Sena, with the majority of the party MLAs siding with him, leading to the collapse of the three-party government headed by Uddhav Thackeray. The main grouse of the Shinde faction was Uddhav snapping ties with former partner BJP and joining hands with traditional adversaries, Congress and NCP.
(With PTI inputs)
