Devendra Fadnavis was the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and was widely anticipated to take a third look at the position. Today, he said that it was his plan for Eknath Shinde, a Shiv Sena member, to fill the post. After announcing that he was staying out of government on Thursday morning, Mr Fadnavis took the oath to be Mr Shinde’s deputy in the evening.
Today, Nagpur reporter, Fadnavis, said: “It won’t be wrong if I said this to the BJP leadership that Shinde should become the chief minister, and they (the leadership), accepted it.”
He was quoted by the news agency Press Trust of India as saying, “Our leaders Narendra Modi Ji, Amit Shah, and JP Naddaji, with my approval (the determination to make Shinde chief minister)”
Ever since Mr Shinde started his rebellion, declaring that Sena should renew its alliance with the BJP and rule Maharashtra, and his numbers started growing, there was a buzz that Mr Fadnavis will return as the Chief Minster for a third time. The surprise announcement by Mr Fadnavis was made on June 30th, and the media reported about it.
The bigger surprise came in the evening with JP Nadda, chief of BJP, announcing that Mr Fadnavis would be Mr Shinde’s Deputy and should therefore join the government. Amit Shah (then chief strategist of the party) tweeted that Mr Fadnavis accepted.