Devendra Fadnavis quits as Maharashtra chief minister, hands over resignation to Governor

Maharashtra
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis handed over his resignation to Governor Bhagat
Singh Koshyari at a quick meeting on Friday evening, 15 days after the
Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine secured a clear majority in last
month’s state elections.

Fadnavis,
the BJP’sspeculative chief minister, however, could not stake claim after
bitter tussle with its alliance partner led by Uddhav Thackeray demanded a
written assurance that a Sena nominee would be given the chance to be chief
minister after 30 months.

BJP leaders
had been disagreed of the Sena’s demand and saw it more as a negotiating scheme
to get a larger lump of cabinet berths. But it was after Fadnavis declared that
there had no agreement between the two allies to share the chief minister’s
post that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena under his heels.

Fadnavis has
been asked to continue as an acting chief minister by the governor until a new
government is formed or an alternative arrangement is announced.

The chief
minister appeared announce his resignation after handing over the formal letter
to the governor. It was the first time that he was appearing before the cameras
to talk about his party’s efforts to form the government.

The chief minister declared that he was not part of any discussion where the concept of a rotational chief minister was decided or discussed. If there was something like this between Amit Shah and Uddhav Thackeray, “I am not aware about it.”

Fadnavis
said he had attempted to reach out to the Sena chief but couldn’t get through
to him.

Fadnavis
said , “Uddhavji did not take my calls. We did not stop discussions. They
stopped talking to us. It’s possible that they were upset and wanted some time
to discuss things with us. But, it is unfortunate that at the same time, Sena
was talking to Congress and NCP, often twice or thrice in a day”.