Amid suspense over the Mahayuti's choice for the next chief minister of Maharashtra, a leader of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has claimed that the Maratha community wants him to continue in the top post.
It was also desirable that Shinde should continue as chief minister in view of the coming elections to the local bodies in the state, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sheetal Mhatre told reporters on Tuesday.
Despite the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance securing a massive victory, winning 230 seats in the 288-member assembly, consensus has eluded the ruling combine's leaders so far on who should be the next CM.
"Shinde successfully provided ten per cent reservation to the Maratha community (under the economically and socially backward category) and helped the community through the Annasaheb Patil and Sarathi corporations," she said, claiming that the community, hence, stood behind the Mahayuti in the elections.
"The demand that the chief minister should be from the Maratha community is gaining strength," she added.
While chief minister Shinde, who hails from western Maharashtra's Satara district, belongs to the politically dominant Maratha community, BJP leader and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, considered to be the frontrunner for the CM's post following the BJP's spectacular performance in the elections, is a Brahmin from Nagpur.
A group of women, meanwhile, met Shinde in Mumbai on Monday to express gratitude for the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, a scheme under which eligible women get Rs 1,500 per month. The scheme is said to have played a major role in the ruling coalition's electoral success.
