BJP's Devendra Fadnavis is set to return as Maharashtra Chief Minister and take oath at 7 pm on Thursday. Eknath Shinde, who led the rebellion in the Shiv Sena leading to the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray as CM, will be his deputy, sources told ABP News. The development comes after Shinde, who arrived in Mumbai from Goa, met Fadnavis at the latter's official residence in south Mumbai to discuss formation of the next government in Maharashtra.
After their meeting, Shinde and Fadnavis went to the Raj Bhavan along with several BJP leaders. They submitted the letters of the supporting MLAs to Governor BS Koshyari and staked claim to form the government, PTI reported. The BJP has said that it had the support of a total of 170 MLAs, including those from Shinde's rebel faction.
BJP state president Chandrakant Dada Patil, senior leaders Sudhir Mungantiwar and Girish Mahajan, former Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, Praveen Darekar, backward leaders Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Vijaykumar Deshmukh, Ganesh Naik, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, Sanjay Kute, Ravindra Chavan, Dr Ashok Uikey, Suresh Khade, Jaykumar Rawal, Atul Save, Devyani Farande, Randhir Savarkar and Madhuri Misal are likely to be made Cabinet ministers, sources informed ABP.
On Wednesday, Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Maharashtra CM, a day before a scheduled floor test in the state Assembly.