It is such a shame that after such a huge mandate the Mahayuti cannot form the new government, though the results were declared on November 23. They are insulting the mandate. By rights, the chief ministerial post belongs to the leader of the party which has more MLAs than the combined total of the other two constituents. There can be no two opinions about that common sense assertion. Yes, if the BJP wants to play the proverbial sacrificial lamb it can ask Devendra Fadnavis to stand down. It was fine when three years ago the party installed Eknath Shinde in the chief ministerial gaddi, though even then it had nearly twice as many MLAs as Shinde had waled away with from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena. The threat of MVA destabilising the government could not have been ignored then. But post-poll the MVA has been mauled so badly it would take quite some time for it get back on its feet. And the BJP with the accretion of five independent MLAs joining it, on its own is near the half-way mark. With Ajit Pawar publicly endorsing Fadnavis for chief ministership, Shinde should gracefully bow to the inevitable and propose the BJP leader’s name for heading the new government. He betrays the trust the Maharashtra voter has reposed in the Mahayuti by throwing a sulking fit and vanishing to his village in Satara district while more urgent task of government-formation awaits him in Mumbai. Such childish behaviour is unbecoming of a senior politician like him. Decency requires that the leaders of the Mahayuti work together in the same cooperative and concerted manner with which they had worked to win the large popular mandate. Now with Fadnavis as chief minister and Shinde and Ajit Pawar as Dy. CMs, they should show the same zeal and energy to resolve the myriad socio-economic problems facing the people of Maharashtra. Excessive ambition, especially unsupported by numbers in the Assembly, can be counter-productive. Shinde can have no shame working as number two, especially when Fadnavis was his deputy CM in his government. After all, a chief minister is but only a first among equal cabinet ministers.
