IMAGE: Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut addresses a press conference in Mumbai. Photograph: PTI Photo
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said he extends his ‘best wishes’ to Devendra Fadnavis if the Bharatiya Janata Party leader was confident of forming the government in Maharashtra.
Chief Minister Fadnavis handed over his resignation to the governor on Friday afternoon after the deadlock over government formation in the state could not be broken even a fortnight after the assembly poll results were out.
Talking to the media after Fadnavis’s press conference where the BJP leader squarely blamed the Sena for failure to reach a new power-sharing agreement, Raut said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will make his party’s position clear soon.
“If the chief minister says there will be a BJP government again under his leadership, my best wishes to them. In democracy, those who have majority form the government and get the chief minister’s post,” Raut said.
“I also say, on behalf of my party, that we can form government if we want and there can be a Shiv Sena chief minister,” Raut told reporters.
He also dismissed Fadnavis’s allegation that the Shiv Sena leaders unfairly criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
There has been no headway in government formation in the state even a fortnight after assembly poll results were announced on October 24.
The BJP and Shiv Sena are locked in a tussle over the chief minister’s post, resulting in a stalemate despite the poll results giving the saffron alliance a combined seat strength of 161, way past the 145 majority mark in the 288-member House.
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