Maharashtra politics LIVE Updates: ‘Uddhav To Lead Maha Govt’, confirms Sharad Pawar

Almost a month after the Mahayuti was awarded the mandate during the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the state is yet to see a government formed while being under President's rule. As the  BJP-Shiv Sena's 'Mahyuti' of 35 years fell out at the state-level, after Maharashtra Assembly polls with Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray insisting a 50-50 sharing of Chief Minister post for 2.5 years and portfolios and Fadnavis refused to these demands, the Shiv Sena has allied with the NCP-Congress combination to form a new alliance - 'Maha Vikas Aghadi'. While the Common Minimum programme has been finalised by the three parties'respective committees, a final announcement of the cabinet split and CM/deputy CM post is expected on Friday.

Uddhav not keen on CM

Sources report that while the Shiv Sena has been awarded a full-time CM post and several cabinet berths, NCP-Congress has insisted that the Shiv Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray be made CM.  While NCP and Congress have kept a deputy CM each for itself along with several cabinet berths, sources reveal that Uddhav Thackeray is not keen on becoming CM and is likely to nominate Arvind Sawant or Subhash Desai for the post. 

Cabinet split (Sena-Cong-NCP)

As of now, as per sources here is the cabinet split:

Shiv Sena :

• Uddhav Thackeray - CM post and urban development and general administration cabinets
• Aaditya Thackeray, Eknath Shinde, Diwakar Raut, and Subhash Desai - one cabinet berth each

Congress

• Unnamed MLA - Deputy CM
• Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, and Balasaheb Thorat - one cabinet berth each

NCP:

• Ajit Pawar - Deputy CM and Home Ministry
• Jayant Patil, Chagan Bhujbal and Nawab Malik - one cabinet berth each

Hectic parleys

While Sonia Gandhi greenlighted the alliance on Wednesday, there has a flurry of meetings held between NCP-Congress leaders, Congress Maharashtra - CWC and NCP-Shiv Sena to nail down the key details of the alliance. Sources further report that Congress had also turned down Shiv Sena's offer to name the alliance ' Maha Shiv Aghadi' stating that it will not compromise its ideology, asking the right-wing Shiv Sena to tone down its stance on certain contentious issues. Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut has claimed that all three parties along with the Independent MLAs supporting them (total - 170 MLAs) will stake claim to form the next Maharashtra government in the first week of December.

Current Maha Assembly numbers

The Mahayuti alliance swept Maharashtra on October 24, winning a combined tally of 161 (BJP- 105, Sena -56). Meanwhile, the Maha Agadhi alliance (NCP-Congress) won  98 seats (NCP- 54, Congress- 44 ). The halfway mark in 144 in the 288 seat-Assembly.
 

Sources report that all three parties - NCP, Shiv Sena, and Congress' coordination committee leaders are scheduled to meet at  11 AM. Meanwhile, after meeting last night at  NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar's residence (Silver Oaks) at Mumbai, Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray is most likely to meet the NCP chief again before the final announcement.

Sources also report that Congress interim-president Sonia Gandhi has directed senior leaders like Mallikarjuna Kharge, KC Venugopal and Ahmed Patel to be present during the final announcement of the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena alliance.

All Shiv Sena MLAs have reached the Thackeray residence Matoshree as Shiv Sena's internal meeting gets underway. Meanwhile, NCP’s Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil reach Silver Oaks to meet party chief Sharad Pawar. The core committee meeting of NCP is also scheduled ahead of the final announcement is done.

While meeting is underway of all Shiv Sena MLAs, sources have stated that the three parties will decide when to stake a claim in the meeting scheduled on Friday. Moreover when to meet the governor and when to take Oath will also allegedly decided on Friday. The governor is scheduled to attend the conference of governors on Saturday and Sunday in Delhi.

Shiv Sena MLAs have unanimously asked Uddhav Thackeray to become the Chief Minister, asking him to reconsider his decision to nominated someone else, as per sources. With the Shiv Sena MLAs meeting concluded, Thackeray is set to visit the BMC where Mumbai Mayor polls are currently underway.

BMC Mayor polls:

Amid the Mahaytuti fallout, BJP's mayor candidate Ashish Shelar officially pulled out of the race awarding Shiv Sena a clean road to bagging the Mayor and Deputy Mayor post.  Currently, Shiv Sena with 94 corporators holds the sway in the 227-member House, over the BJP which has 81 corporators (1 disqualified). With a joint tally of 175, the BJP-Shiv Sena combo is well over the halfway mark of 114 corporators. Currently, NCP has 6 corporators and Congress has 30 corporators. The mayor post will most probably sway towards Shiv Sena, in case BJP corporators vote against their candidate, as it holds the highest number of seats in the civic body and has controlled the BMC  since 1985.

NCP-Congress party meeting has started in Dhananjay Munde’s Bungalow, as per sources. Leaders present from Congress are Prithviraj Chavan, Manikrao Thakre, Vijay Wadettiwar, and Nitin Raut. Meanwhile,  Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil are present from the NCP. Apart from these leaders, allies party leaders like  Abu Azmi, Raju Shetty, Anil Gote and other leaders to present in the meeting.

Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge and Avinash Pandey have reached Mumbai. Sources report that the leaders will leave from the airport for a meeting likely for the Congress Legislature meeting to decide the Leader of the Congress legislative party.

Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena meeting is scheduled at 4 PM and a final announcement is most likely to be made at 6 PM, as per sources.

Shiv Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Friday, has allegedly blamed BJP for the current situation in Maharashtra, at a Shiv Sena MLA meet at Matoshree. Moreover, sources added that Thackeray has expressed his displeasure that the BJP excluded Sena from the NDA. He has claimed that he had expected a word from BJP before such a move, adding no one informed him.
 

Shiv Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Friday, has allegedly blamed BJP for the current situation in Maharashtra, at a Shiv Sena MLA meet at Matoshree. Moreover, sources added that Thackeray has expressed his displeasure that the BJP excluded Sena from the NDA. He has claimed that he had expected a word from BJP before such a move, adding no one informed him.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP meeting is scheduled to start soon.
 

Sources report that a plea has been filed by a Maharashtra resident Surendra Indrabahadur Singh in the Supreme court against the NCP- Shiv Sena- Congress alliance. The plea reportedly states that voters had given a clear mandate to BJP-Sena alliance and hence cannot be changed now. Sources report that plea seeks SC orders to restrain the Governor of Maharashtra from inviting the alliance to form a Government in Maharashtra.

Joint meeting between NCP-Shiv Sena- Congress commences. Final decision on the alliance is awaited. Sources report that the new CM candidate may be revealed after meeting.

After the joint meeting of Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP on Friday, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in a massive statement revealed that there was unanimity on Uddhav Thackeray being the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Furthermore, he exuded confidence that the tie-up would be formally announced on Saturday.

Addressing the media, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan stated that the top leaders of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena attended the meeting. Revealing that they had a positive discussion, he reiterated that their discussions would continue on Saturday. 

Speaking outside the Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial at Dadar, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut confirmed that his party supremo Uddhav Thackeray had agreed to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.