Wild political gossip, speculation and suspense continued because of the Maharashtra CM’s name not being announced even on Saturday evening, after a week of the thumping victory of the BJP-backed Mahayuti alliance.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, a team of doctors visited Maharashtra caretaker CM Eknath Shinde at his Dare village residence in Satara district of Maharashtra, to put him on saline, after he complained of high fever.

Shinde’s party sources said that he did not leave his residence since Friday because of fever and is reported to be resting based on the advice of his doctors.

However, this has merely served to give a huge boost to political speculation with Shinde’s fever being attributed to some inexplicable and strange “political” reasons. These speculations are centred around Shinde’s meeting with a senior Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Jitendra Awhad in Mumbai on Friday, just before he left for Satara.

The other source of political speculation is based on Eknath Shinde’s supposedly “fallen face” in a photograph of his Delhi meeting with Union Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, after it went viral.

According to political gossip doing the rounds, in the purported photograph of the Delhi meeting with Amit Shah on Thursday, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were seen “smiling”, while Shinde’s face was “fallen”, indicating that he was upset with what transpired at the meeting.

The fact that the BJP-backed Mahayuti is yet to officially announce the name of the Mahayuti’s Maharashtra CM has not helped cool down the political speculation across Maharashtra.

In a related development on Friday, a former minister Deepak Kesarkar and leader of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena went to his village Dare to meet the caretaker CM. Yet, he had to return from Shinde’s residence after he was told that Shinde’s health has deteriorated and that he is sleeping.

Kesarkar is reported to have left for Mumbai after his unsuccessful attempt to meet Shinde in person.

Sources have indicated that Union Home Minister Amit Shah will interact with BJP MLAs from Maharashtra on December 2 or December 3.

On Friday, BJP State President Chandrasekhar Bawankule is said to have interacted with MLAs through videoconferencing. He has instructed BJP MLAs to attend the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, December 5, at the historic Azad Maidan ground in South Mumbai.