Mumbai: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepares for the grand swearing-in ceremony of Maharashtra chief minister-designate Devendra Fadnavis and his cabinet, the Shiv Sena is yet to make up its mind on whether to join the BJP government.
With Union Minister Rajnath Singh of the BJP making it clear that the Sena was welcome to join but without any conditions, it was still not clear whether Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was likely to attend the gala function on Friday.
Fadnavis is expected to form a smaller cabinet, with the BJP planning to do away with the deputy chief minister’s post. This puts the Sena in a spot as the party was eyeing this post and hoping to maintain its dignity before its party supporters and voters. As of now, the council of ministers may include Eknath Khadse, Vindo Tawde, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Prakash Mehta, Pankaja Munde and a few others.
The Sena, which went hammer and tongs against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, during the election campaign period following the breakaway of BJP, is now heaping praise on Modi and Fadnavis.
According to sources, it appears that Uddhav has been misguided or ill-advised in his severe criticism of BJP and Modi during the election trail and whatever position he takes up now could come up for criticism from his party supporters.
Meanwhile, the BJP, the largest single party that won 122 seats in a 288-member assembly, is confident with the unconditional support given by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Its other option is to take the support of Independents and also urge some of the Congress or NCP legislators to resign and contest elections again on a BJP ticket so as to increase the tally to 145 seats to form a majority government.
In an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece, Saamna, the BJP was warned against taking NCP’s support as it would raise questions on the credibility of the Fadnavis government. Vidarbha, from where Fadnavis hails, is a region where the NCP has been involved in several corruption scams, the editorial said.
Fadnavis visited Delhi Thursday to thank the BJP leadership for “reposing faith” in him. In Mumbai, the Wankhede Stadium where he will be sworn in tomorrow and its precincts has become off limits to the public.
To be attended by Modi, union cabinet ministers, top BJP brass, industrialists, celebrities and others, the police will throw-in a three-layer safety net for the two-hour ceremony starting at 4pm.
