Maharashtra govt formation: Ex-CM Shinde’s son Shrikant refutes rumours of becoming Deputy CM

Maharashtra caretaker and outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son, Dr Shrikant, on Monday (Dec. 2), refuted rumours of becoming the Indian state’s deputy chief minister.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance is likely to announce the next CM later in the day, and the swearing-in ceremony will take place on Thursday (December 5). 

The Mahayuti alliance achieved a landslide victory in the recent assembly polls. The BJP won 132 seats out of the total 280, while the Shiv Sena (led by Shinde) won 57 seats and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Ajit Pawar, won 41 seats.

Earlier, Ajit Pawar clarified that the next Maharashtra CM would be from the BJP, and the two deputy CMs would be from the NCP and Shiv Sena.

In a post on X, Dr Shrikant Shinde said on Monday, “After election results, the formation of government is delayed a little and that is why so many rumours are floating around and one (such rumour) is that I am going to be the deputy chief minister in the new government.”

“I want to tell everyone that this is completely baseless and false, and there is no fact in this,” Shrikant added.

Shrikant also pointed out that he was not in the race for any ministerial position in Maharashtra adding that he was willing to work for his Lok Sabha constituency and the Shiv Sena. 

While the name of the next CM of Maharashtra has not been revealed yet, a senior BJP leader told the news agency PTI late Sunday that the name of Devendra Fadnavis had been finalised for the top post. 

“The name of Devendra Fadnavis has been finalised as the new chief minister of Maharashtra. The meeting to elect the new BJP legislature party meeting would be held on either December 2 or 3,” the BJP leader said.