'Maha' tussle over CM post: NCP leader puts up poster pitching for Ajit Pawar as CM, removes it later

NEW DELHI: A day before the Maharashtra verdict, a poster pitching for Ajit Pawar as the next chief minister of the state added to the buzz around power tussle for the top post in the ruling Mahayuti. The poster, which was put up by a NCP leader in Pune and eventually taken down, highlights the competing claims expected for the top post once the results are out tomorrow.

"Ajit dada is a mass leader of Maharashtra. His work speaks for itself. He does what he says. He speaks for the development of Maharashtra. So, all workers and leaders of NCP feel that he should become the chief minister this time. This is why we have put up this banner," NCP leader Santosh Nangare said.

The Shiv Sena leaders have also openly pitched for Eknath Shinde and claimed that he deserves another term. Party spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said the assembly elections were contested with chief minister Eknath Shinde as the face. “Voters have shown their preference for Shinde through voting. I think it is Shinde's right (to be the next CM) and we are confident that he will be the next CM,” Shirsat said.


Meanwhile, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who remains the strongest contender for the top post given the fact that his party will likely be the largest party in the alliance, has maintained that all three Mahayuti parties will sit together and take a "good decision".

But it is not just the ruling Mahayuti where the three partners would be jostling for the top post, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi also faces a similar challenge. In fact, the MVA cracks on the issue is already out in the open with Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena openly challenging the state Congress chief's claim of the grand old party leading the government.

After the polling, when state Congress chief Nana Patole asserted an MVA government would be formed in Maharashtra under the leadership of his party, he was countered by Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha member of Shiv Sena (UBT). Sanjay Raut insisted the chief ministerial face will be decided by all alliance partners jointly once the MVA secures majority.

Raut said if the Congress high command has told Patole that he will be the CM face then the national party's president Mallikarjun Kharge, and its top leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should announce the same. The Shiv Sena (UBT) feels that Uddhav is the automatic choice for the top post since he had led the MVA government for two and a half years.

But the Congress, since the beginning, has resisted Shiv Sena's bid to pitch Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister face of MVA. After its success in the Lok Sabha elections in the state, the Congress is hopeful of emerging as the largest party within the opposition coalition and does not want to commit itself to Uddhav's leadership before the numbers are out.

Maharashtra is a state which saw one of the biggest political realignments in the recent times when in 2019 the Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after differences over the CM post and joined hands with the Congress and the NCP. With all the six key players in the state pitching hard for their leaders as chief minister, new political realignments can't be ruled out if the verdict is divided.