Devendra Fadnavis elected Maharashtra BJP legislature party leader

Nearly a week after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was on Wednesday (October 30) unanimously re-elected leader of the state BJP legislature party.

All the 105 newly-elected BJP MLAs were present at the meeting, where Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party vice president Avinash Rai Khanna were present as central observers.

The meeting was held at Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai.

Tomar says no other name was proposed at the BJP legislature party meeting.

Also read: BJP never had power sharing deal with Sena, I will be the CM: Fadnavis

A turban-clan Fadnavis thanked party MLAs for reposing faith in him and giving him another chance to serve the state. He also thanked Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.

The meeting came in the backdrop of the power sharing tussle between the BJP and the Shiv Sena after results of the October 21 Assembly elections were declared on October 24.

The Sena won 56 seats, NCP 54 and Congress 44 in the 288-member House.

Ever since the results were declared, the BJP and its oldest alliance partner have been at logger heads over sharing power in the state.

Shiv Sena which has upped the ante by resorting to some hard bargaining is scheduled to meet at Matoshree, the residence of Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)