NEW DELHI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday refuted the speculations of growing rift within the Mahayuti alliance and assured that the BJP-led alliance with Shiv Sena and NCP will not break.
In a joint press conference ahead of the budget session, Shinde made a joke out of speculations and said that a cold war is not possible inside the alliance amid the scorching heat of Maharashtra.
“This is the second session of our government. Only we (Devendra Fadnavis and I) have changed roles. But yes, Ajit Dada’s role is constant…We have started many projects which were stopped by the MVA government. Ajit Dada will present the Maharashtra budget,” Shinde said.
“No matter how many breaking news you give, we (Mahayuti) will not break. What is cold war? There is nothing like that. In this scorching heat of Maharashtra… how is a cold war possible?” he added.
Shinde’s reaction came after the opposition claimed that he met Union home minister Amit Shah on Feb 22 in Pune in the early hours of the morning and told him how he was being cornered in the MahaYuti govt and his all decisions taken by him were being reversed by CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut claimed that Shinde told Shah that he wanted to be CM to which Shah said that the only way Shinde could be CM was to merge his party (Shiv Sena) into the BJP and no outsider could be CM now.
Shah reportedly told Shinde that to merge with BJP and only then can his claim on the post of CM be considered as an outsider will not become the CM of Maharashtra now.
Raut made the revelations in his Rok Thok his weekly column in Saamna, the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece.
“Eknath Shinde met Union home minister Amit Shah in the early hours of Saturday, February 22. The meeting took place at the ‘Westin’ hotel in Koregaon Park, Pune. The leader of the 57 MLAs was awake till four in the morning to meet Amit Shah. Shinde met Shah at four in the morning to say, “I have no respect in the government, I was the chief minister till yesterday. Today all my decisions are being reversed…When Shinde came out after meeting Shah, his face fell. There was a discussion between Shah and Shinde and the conversation was actually a complaint by Shinde about Fadnavis,” Raut wrote.
In the 2024 assembly elections, the Mahayuti coalition of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP won 235 of the 288 seats, with BJP securing 132 alone. Shinde’s Sena secured 57 seats and Ajit Pawar’s NCP got 41 seats.