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Shreya Poddar / 24 December, 2024

Maharashtra CM Battle: Devendra Fadnavis vs. Eknath Shinde in a High-Stakes Contest

Maharashtra - Despite winning by a huge margin in Maharashtra Eknath Shinde is in doubt whether he will be able to save his Chief Minister's seat. Devendra Fadnavis, a major partner of the BJP, is breathing down the neck of Eknath, the leader of the Shiv Sena (Shinde) party who is a partner in the Mahayuti alliance. The race for the Chief Minister’s post in Maharashtra has turned into a face-off between Fadnavis and Shinde. The third alliance partner NCP (Ajit) party leader Ajit Pawar was in the chief ministerial race till the fall. But today, seeing how the BJP has practically single-handedly reached the magic number in Maharashtra, he has stopped the fight.

According to the central BJP leadership, as the leader of the largest party, Devendra Fadnavis should naturally become the Chief Minister. A large section of the state leadership wants to see Devendra as Chief Minister. Apart from that, when the BJP allied with the Shinde camp, the BJP was forced to make Eknath the chief minister despite being a major partner in retaining power. As a result, BJP feels that Devendra's chief ministership is due for a long time. The central leadership does not want Devendra to be deprived of the post of Chief Minister once again. The party fears that the morale of BJP MLAs and workers in the state may be damaged.

The Shinde camp is not far behind. Eknath Shinde has played a major role in the huge victory of the NDA alliance today. Shinde's supporters claim that after the poor result in the Lok Sabha, Shinde adopted a series of public wooing policies as Chief Minister to regain public support, which includes the 'Ladli Behen' Yojana. Those close to Shinde have argued that the success of the cash-in-hand scheme for women has swung the polls in favor of the NDA.

According to them, the NDA candidates got huge support from the women of Maharashtra for bringing that project. A large part of the Shinde camp does not want the party to yield to the BJP's pressure and leave the post of Chief Minister. Shiv Sena has called a meeting of all the winning MLAs at a hotel in Mumbai to decide the party's position. It is there that the party will take the final decision on the post of chief minister besides choosing the leader of the legislative party.