In a recent exclusive interview with News18, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, disclosed that both the BJP and the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had extended offers to Uddhav Thackeray for the Chief Minister’s position, each for a term of 2.5 years, back in 2019.
Shinde elaborated on his endeavours to facilitate the formation of a BJP-Shiv Sena government, revealing that despite his involvement in five rounds of negotiations, Thackeray’s insistence on a five-year tenure as CM was perceived by Shinde as an act of greediness. Shinde rebuked Thackeray’s subsequent accusations of treachery, contending that Thackeray himself had betrayed the trust of Maharashtra’s electorate, which had supported the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance during the 2019 elections.
While addressing a campaign event in Nagpur for Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Shinde directed criticism towards the Congress and predicted the erosion of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in Maharashtra. This interview marked Shinde’s inaugural appearance on a national platform after the formation of the Sena-Congress-NCP’s Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, providing insights into the clandestine dynamics that precipitated its inception.
