{"id":36275,"date":"2014-10-27T08:33:16","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T03:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=36275"},"modified":"2014-10-27T14:08:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T08:38:57","slug":"race-for-maharashtra-cms-post-theres-much-for-bjp-to-ponder-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/politics\/race-for-maharashtra-cms-post-theres-much-for-bjp-to-ponder-over","title":{"rendered":"Race for Maharashtra CM\u2019s Post: There\u2019s Much for BJP to Ponder Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Who<\/a><\/p>\n

Did BJP know that this was coming? Perhaps not. The tussle over the Maharashtra Chief Minster\u2019s post is gradually becoming more evident within BJP. The party MLAs are going to meet on Oct 28 to elect the CM, but even two days prior to it there\u2019s hasn\u2019t been any clear indication on the possible choice. Frontrunners such as Nitin Gadkari, Eknath Khadse and Devendra Fadnavis are being frequently named in the political discourse of the state and lobbying is on full swing.<\/p>\n

BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar had been lobbying for Gadkari by calling him \u201cthe unanimous choice\u201d of the party\u2019s Maharashtra unit. Mungantiwar is also claiming that Devendra Fadnavis himself supports Gadkari’s candidature. Eknath Khadse, another \u00a0BJP strongman vying for the CM post, has garnered enough support from his loyalists who recently launched a \u2018padyatra\u2019 campaign to demand chief ministership for him.<\/p>\n

The Khadse supporters are doing their bit to convince BJP bigwigs by portraying him as the most experienced and eligible face of the party in Maharashtra. The supporters are strengthening their pitch by stating that there never had been any Chief Minister from north Maharashtra. Sidelining the essential requirements such as capability and efficiency, they are now putting more emphasis on the fact that this is a chance for the BJP do to justice to the people of North Maharashtra.<\/p>\n

However, there are some challenges about all these contenders for Maharashtra CM that the party can\u2019t be oblivious of.<\/p>\n

The idea of giving the CM\u2019s job to Fadnavis is somewhat fraught with a unique problem. The caste calculus might come into play as BJP has already supported upper caste individuals and given them important portfolios at the Centre. Choosing Fadnavis would mean that the party will be favouring yet another Brahmin for the most important leadership job in the state.<\/p>\n

Gadkari, reportedly, isn\u2019t very keen on becoming the CM as he is \u201cvery happy in Delhi.\u201d Although he ruled himself out of the race, he would like to see his associate Sudhir Mungantiwar appointed as CM. That way, Gadkari would maintain his clout when it comes to controlling Maharashtra politics. Although Khadse could be a safe bet for the party, not just for his years of experience, but for the fact that he belongs to an OBC community, his prospect of becoming CM seems thin since he has already raised concerns about his ill health.<\/p>\n

With a slew of contenders for the CM\u2019s post, what is the PM Modi\u2019s stand regarding this? Modi, in all probability, will root for Fadnavis. Considered as a \u201cyoung and dynamic development face\u201d of the party, the party sees enough potential in Fadnavis to connect with people across all income groups.<\/p>\n

If media reports are to be believed, both Modi and BJP president Amit Shah would \u201cwant their man\u201d in command in Maharashtra so that the party is able to garner support of industrialists. Integrity and sincerity, which Fadnavis is known for, will work to BJP\u2019s advantage. As for Gadkari, Modi would prefer to have him in the union cabinet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did BJP know that this was coming? Perhaps not. The tussle over the Maharashtra Chief Minster\u2019s post is gradually becoming more evident within BJP. The party MLAs are going to meet on Oct 28 to elect the CM, but even two days prior to it there\u2019s hasn\u2019t been any clear indication on the possible choice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":36327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11315,3],"tags":[6328,6333,2822,4488],"class_list":{"0":"post-36275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-devendra-fadnavis","10":"tag-eknath-khadse","11":"tag-maharashtra","12":"tag-nitin-gadkari"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36328,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36275\/revisions\/36328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}