Mumbai: Breaking the lull post Maharashtra Assembly election results, senior state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Tawde on Sunday announced that the party is willing to form a government in Maharashtra in alliance with the Shiv Sena.
"Talks are on with Shiv Sena, would like them as allies in Maharashtra," Tawde told reporters here.
"BJP wants to form government with Shiv Sena, if we come together by heart, the dream of corruption free Maharashtra of people can come true," he added, ANI reported.
On the issue of allocation of portfolios, Tawde said, "If we come together in our minds, then we can discuss portfolios etc".
However, Tawde said that a final decision over the matter will be taken only after a meeting of the Maharashtra BJP Legislature Party.
"There will be a meeting of all Maharashtra BJP MLAs & MPs day after tomorrow at party headquarters. The meeting will also be attended by BJP observers Rajnath Singh & JP Nadda ji," Tawde said.
According to reports, Home Minister Rajnath Singh will also travel to Mumbai on Tuesday to chair a meeting of BJP Legislature Party to elect its leader, who will lead the party's government in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, sources in BJP have informed various news channels that the swearing-in of the Maharashtra government may take place on October 30.
Maharashtra BJP Legislature Party will meet on Tuesday to elect their leader, paving the way for him to meet Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and stake claim to form the government.
“The meeting to elect the Legislature Party Leader and the Chief Minister designate will be held at 11 am at Vidhan Bhavan on Tuesday (October 28),” senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse told reporters here today.
Earlier, Khadse, Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis and senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde had met to discuss preparations for government formation.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP in-charge of Maharashtra JP Nadda would attend Tuesday's meeting as observers.
The BJP legislature party leader would meet Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to stake claim to form the state government, he said.
"We will prove our majority in the house if the Governor desires," Khadse said.
BJP, which has emerged as the single largest party in the elections held for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, winning 122 seats, has already been offered unconditional outside support by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which won 41 seats. With its 63 MLAs, Shiv Sena is the second largest party in the House.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a tea party for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Members of Parliament (MPs) at his official 7, Race Course Road (RCR) residence in the capital.
The tea party took place just days after the BJP's splendid performance in the assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra. It was also seen as an attempt by the BJP to reach out to ally Shiv Sena for the formation of the state government in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray was, however, not present at the tea party.
The BJP and Shiv Sena broke their 25-year old alliance ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls over seat sharing.
