BJP's Andhra Pradesh unit celebrates return of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra CM

The Andhra Pradesh state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday celebrated the return of Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

The state unit of the party distributed sweets and burst firecrackers to celebrate the occasion.Speaking to ANI, K Haribabu, former BJP president of the state, said: "The people of Maharashtra wanted Fadnavis to become the Chief Minister for the second time. It is a victory for the people and a success for the democracy of the country."

Haribabu further stated that Congress had attempted a back-door entry to governance in Maharashtra and their efforts had failed.

Refuting Sharad Pawar's statement that he was not aware of the developments, BJP leader D Purandeswari said: "When 54 MLAs had given their support to BJP, how can the President of the party say that he is not aware of their decisions?"

She further welcomed the support of Ajit Pawar for the BJP-NCP government, stating that with his support and the leadership of Fadnavis, there will be a stable government in Maharashtra for the next five years.

In a surprising turn of events, while Fadnavis was sworn-in as the CM on Saturday morning, Ajit became the Deputy CM after he "decided to form a stable government" with the BJP in the state.

BJP had bagged 105 seats in the recently culminated Assembly polls, the NCP had emerged as the third-largest party as far as the vote-share was concerned, winning 54 seats.

Saturday morning's developments came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.

Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of the alliance government.

Previously, the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.

Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

The Governor had then invited NCP, which fought the polls in alliance with the Congress, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.