With just three days remaining for the deadline for the formation of government in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday evening met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat at the right-wing group’s headquarters in Nagpur.
Earlier in the day, Fadnavis had held a meeting of BJP leaders at his official residence in Mumbai.
According to reports, Fadnavis held over a 45-minute closed-door meeting with Bhagwat and his deputy and RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi on the political scenario in the state.
The development came hours after the state BJP President Chandrakant Patil announced in Mumbai that a BJP-led government would be formed very soon with Fadnavis as its leader.
“People have given the mandate to BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. We will honour that mandate and form the government. Shiv Sena is yet to give any proposal. BJP’s doors are always open for Shiv Sena,” he told reporters.
BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the party will wait for Shiv Sena, but asserted that only BJP will form the government in the state. “There is no ‘if’ and ‘but’ here, you will get the news anytime that we are forming the government,” he told media persons.
Fadnavis’ meeting with the RSS chief comes after he met BJP President and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Monday.
Interestingly, the Shiv Sena had earlier approached the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to help end the deadlock.
In a letter to Mohan Bhagwat, Sena leader Kishore Tiwari, known to be close to Union minister Nitin Gadkari, had appealed the RSS chief to step into the current political scenario, while alleging that the BJP is not following “coalition dharma”.
Tiwari said the state has delivered a mandate in favour of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. “But the BJP’s failure to follow ‘coalition dharma’ is delaying the formation of a new government in Maharashtra. Therefore, the RSS should intervene and resolve the issue,” the letter read.
The Sena and the BJP are locked in a tussle since the Uddhav Thackeray-led party raised demand for the chief minister’s post on a rotational basis and implementation of a “50:50 power-sharing” formula, which entails equal allocation of ministerial portfolios.
The BJP has rejected both the demands, which resulted in the formal power talks, which are yet to take off, hitting a wall.