The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Sunday, announced that it would not be forming the government in Maharashtra since it does not have the required numbers.
Maharashtra BJP President Chandrakant Patil, after meeting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari said, “We will not form government in the state,” adding that though the people of Maharashtra had given their mandate to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party is neither ready nor supporting the formation of the new government in the state as was decided before the assembly elections.
“We could have formed the government comfortably as the mandate was for Mahayuti and since Shiv Sena is not ready to support government formation we have told the Governor that we will not be able to form the government,” said Chandrakant Patil while addressing the media.
Earlier in the day, the core committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party for government formation in Maharashtra was held at the residence of Devendra Fadnavis which remained inconclusive.
The core committee comprised of Devendra Fadnavis, state unit head Chandrakant Patil, senior leaders Girish Mahajan, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Ashish Shelar, and Pankaja Munde.
On Saturday, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had invited Devendra Fadnavis to form the government by virtue of being the single largest party with 105 seats in the 288 seat assembly.
Amid political uncertainty, and as the deadline to form a new government in Maharashtra was about to end on Friday midnight, Fadnavis had handed over his resignation to Governor Koshyari which was accepted.
It is now being speculated that the second alliance, i.e. Congress and the NCP might stake a claim with support from the Shiv Sena.