Nirmala Sitharaman, Devendra Fadnavis and Vijay Rupani
Ending speculations on who will be the new chief minister of Maharashtra, the BJP appointed finance ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Vijay Rupani as central observers. The role of the observers is to chair legislative party meetings and elect the new chief minister. In the BJP, observers play an important role in selecting the chief minister.
This is the fourth time in the past seven years that Nirmala Sitharaman has chosen a chief minister as an observer. Sitharaman was previously elected chief minister of Himachal Pradesh in 2017, Haryana in 2019 and Manipur in 2022 as a central observer.
Which formula will Nirmala use to select CM?
Eleven days after the Maharashtra election results are announced, Nirmala Sitharaman will go to Mumbai to elect the chief minister. The BJP has appointed Vijay Rupani to support Nirmala. Rupani said the chief minister is appointed only by the BJP.
In Maharashtra, the BJP is in alliance with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. Shinde was chief minister earlier and his party leaders demanded that the post be given to him again.
Shinde, however, left the decision on chief minister selection to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. That’s why discussions started from Delhi to Mumbai. What is Nirmala Sitharaman’s plan to go to Maharashtra to choose the chief minister?
Chehra repeats 3 times, surprise once
Sitharaman has so far elected the chief minister thrice as an observer. After the 2017 Himachal Pradesh elections, Jairam Thakur was elected as the leader at a party meeting in the legislature. At that time, JP Nadda and Prem Dhumal were serious contenders for the chief minister’s post. Jeram’s appointment as chief minister came as a surprise.
In 2019, Nirmala traveled to Haryana as an observer. Manohar Lal Khattar was elected chief minister at the legislative party meeting. Khattar had also served as chief minister earlier.
In 2022, the BJP won again in Manipur. This time Nirmala was also appointed as an observer and sent to elect the chief minister. This time, when Nirmala organized the legislative meeting, there was agreement only on the name of N Viren Singh. Singh was the chief minister of Manipur at the time.
Q: Will this face be repeated or will there be surprises?
If we look at Nirmala Sitharaman’s record as an observer, two-thirds of the faces in the news were directed by the CM. In this case, it is said that even in Maharashtra, the face under discussion can be appointed as the chief minister.
Devendra Fadnavis is the frontrunner for the chief ministership of the BJP. Fadnavis also served as chief minister from 2014 to 2019. He is also considered the leader of the alliance. Fadnavis was instrumental in adding Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar to the NDA.
Devendra Fadnavis attended all the NDA meetings from Delhi to Mumbai regarding the government formation exercise. There are also arguments in their favour.
Bharatiya Janata Party to be Maharashtra chief minister for third time
In 2014, the BJP became the chief minister in Maharashtra for the first time. Devendra Fadnavis was elected chief minister at that time. Fadnavis served as CM from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party once again became the largest party. This time the Bharatiya Janata Party also started its efforts to form a government.
Fadnavis also succeeded in taking the oath this time, but failed to win a vote of confidence. Now, this is the third time that the BJP is the chief minister in Maharashtra. In 1995, the BJP came to power for the first time along with the Shiv Sena.
At that time Shiv Sena was elected chief minister and the BJP was elected deputy chief minister.
The BJP won 132 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly. His colleague Eknath Shinde won 57 seats and Ajit Pawar won 41 seats.
