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”.