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Shinde, Fadnavis take on Thackeray over 2019 seat-sharing meeting with Shah

Shinde and Fadnavis on Friday inaugurated the Phase II of the Samruddhi Mahamarg at Shirdi, during which they took on former Maharashtra CM Thackeray
Last Updated 26 May 2023, 18:01 IST

In an apparent allusion to the February 2019 meeting between Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated that anyone could claim that they knew certain things, but no one knows what transpires within four walls.

“We work in the field… We don’t work from home… what happens within four walls, you don’t know… you can claim anything,” Shinde said in the presence of deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP.

Shinde and Fadnavis on Friday inaugurated the Phase II of the Samruddhi Mahamarg at Shirdi, during which they took on former Maharashtra CM Thackeray.

Shinde’s comments were an apparent reference to the February 18, 2019 meeting at Matoshree in Mumbai, during which the deal to contest the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls was clinched.

Fadnavis was then the chief minister.

During the visit, Shah, then BJP president and now Union Home Minister had a meeting with Thackeray, and finalised the seat-sharing formula for the General and Assembly elections, scrapping of the super refinery project at Nanar site, besides other issues.

However, after the Assembly poll results, Thackeray broke three-decade-old ties with BJP and joined hands with the Congress-NCP Democratic Front and played a role in the formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi, the anti-BJP coalition crafted by NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

However, Thackeray had claimed that a 50-50 formula was agreed upon with the rotational CM’s post of two-&-a-half-years each for Shiv Sena and BJP. But the BJP had squarely denied any such assurance to Thackeray and pointed out that the convention is that the party which gets more seats gets the CM post.

However, after the alliance broke, the BJP was pushed to the Opposition benches with Fadnavis assuming the role of leader of Opposition after a move to run a government with NCP’s Ajit Pawar failed.

In June 2022, the Shiv Sena split and Shinde became the chief minister with Fadnavis being asked by the BJP to assume the role as his deputy.

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(Published 26 May 2023, 18:01 IST)

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