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It is now clear that Shiv Sena chief and former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was not alone in opposing Fadnavis being made the CM. Many leaders of the Maharashtra BJP and a section of the high command in Delhi were reluctant to hand over the reins of power to him.
While Delhi was keen to please Shinde for various political reasons, Nagpur was equally adamant that this time, the BJP’s claim to the CM post could not be ignored after its landslide victory.
The BJP is largely the major partner in the alliance with 142 seats, Sena with 57 and Ajit Pawar, NCP with 41 seats.
It is significant that around the same time when Mahayuti leaders Fadnavis, Shinde and Pawar came to Delhi for preliminary discussions on government formation, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was also in the capital.
If Delhi has learned one lesson from this year’s elections, it is this: it can ignore Nagpur only at its own peril. The non-cooperation of the RSS cadre, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, led to the BJP’s defeat in key Lok Sabha seats.
On the other hand, RSS’s extensive ground work helped script the sudden change in BJP’s electoral fortunes between the general elections and the assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.
