Shiv Sena has fallen into its own pit: Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday took a pot-shot at the Shiv Sena for breaking down the nearly three-decade-old alliance with his party and said that the latter has "fallen into its own pit."

"The mandate of the people was with the BJP, our party has successfully formed a government in Maharashtra. Now the Shiv Sena neither belongs to this side nor that. Sena has fallen into its own pit," Chouhan said while speaking to media here.

He claimed that the tri-party alliance government, which was likely to be stitched by the Sena, NCP and Congress, would have caused huge damage to Maharashtra.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister further said that BJP has done great work in Maharashtra under party leadership of Devendra Fadnavis over the past five years.

"Fadnavis has taken the charge of chief minister's office for a consecutive term to give a stable government to Maharashtra. The move has been taken for people's welfare," he said.

In a surprising development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The oath was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhawan.

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.

The BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party in last month's assembly elections, 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 Koshyari.

The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.