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Devendra Fadnavis pays tribute to Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on his death anniversary

The new ally of the Shiv Sena, the NCP too paid tributes to Sena founder, led by its chief Sharad Pawar.

Devendra Fadnavis pays tribute to Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on his death anniversary

(Image: Twitter/@Sunilrane_bjp)

On the death anniversary of the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, leaders from NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena paid tributes to him at an event in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park while some took to Twitter. Uddhav Thackeray, Aaditya Thackeray, Devendra Fadnavis, Sanjay Raut and Jayant Patil paid their tribute to the Shiv Sena founder.

Although their alliance broke down in Maharashtra on the issue of equal partnership and rotational 2.5 years of chief ministership for both Shiv Sena and BJP, the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis came at Shivaji Park to pay his tributes after Sena patriarch Uddhav Thackeray and his son, Aaditya Thackeray, left.

Earlier, he posted a tribute for Balasahib on Twitter as well. He said, (in Marathi) “On the death anniversary of our source of inspiration, and ruler of Hindus’ hearts, Balasaheb Thackeray, we pay our salutations.”

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Other leaders from the BJP who attended the event are Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde.

The new ally of the Shiv Sena, the NCP too paid tributes to Sena founder, led by its chief Sharad Pawar. He tweeted (in Marathi), “Bal Thackeray was a Marathi Manoos who raised the voice for the pride and self-esteem of the Marathis. His politics for social cause. He was a unique orator who got unending affection of his followers. We bow down to him on his death anniversary.”

The Sena and the BJP fought the state polls together and emerged with 161 seats in the 288-member house but fell out after a bitter dispute over allocation of portfolios and sharing of the Chief Minister’s post. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray then approached the opposition – the NCP and the Congress – to form an unlikely alliance and stake claim to form the government, something the BJP declined to do when approached by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, citing its lack of a majority.

Now the picture is clear in Maharashtra that the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress will form the government in the state and modalities are being finalised, “the three parties want to form a stable government which will be development-oriented” said NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday.

He said, “A Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government will be formed and it will complete five-year term he said as he ruled out the possibility of mid-term polls in Maharashtra which is currently under Presidents rule.”

The BJP and Shiv Sena, which fought the October 21 state elections in alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member Assembly. But they did not form the government because the Shiv Sena did not give up on its demand of 50:50 partnership in the government formation and the post of chief minister on rotational basis for 2.5 years for both the parties. The BJP on the other hand did not cede to the Sena’s demand of sharing the chief minister”s post, leading to falling apart of the nearly three-decade-old alliance.

The Congress and NCP won 44 and 54 seats, respectively, in the last month’s polls.

The Sena reached out to the Congress-NCP combine for government formation after its demand for sharing the chief minister’s post and equal distribution of portfolios was rejected by the BJP, its pre-poll ally.

President’s rule was imposed in the state on Tuesday after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari sent a report to the Centre, stating that formation of a stable government was impossible in the current situation despite all his efforts.

At a meeting on Thursday, the appointed leaders of the Congress, the NCP and the Sena prepared a draft CMP. Now it will be forwarded for approval to top leaders of the three parties.

The three parties were supposed to meet the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari yesterday to discuss about “governance failure” on the issue of farmers and rising unemployment, according to reports but that meeting has been postponed till Monday.

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