The game changer night in Maha politics

A meeting between NCP, Congress and Sena began at 4.30 pm at Nehru Center in Worli here, it lasted for more than two hours and went very well. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar first emerged from the meeting and told the media persons that there had been a consensus over the name of Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister. However, Uddhav did not say anything about it. At around 8 am the next day, Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): It was comparatively cool Friday night in Mumbai. But behind the curtains, a political scene was hotting up.
The first-ever meeting between the three major parties NCP, Congress and Sena took place at Nehru Center in Worli, which incidentally is the constituency of Aditya Thackeray.

The meeting which began at 4.30 pm and lasted for more than two hours went very well. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar first emerged from the meeting and told the media persons that there had been a consensus over the name of Uddhav Thackeray as a chief minister. Later Uddhav came out of the meeting but did not say anything about it. Instead, he indicated that the talks are yet to finish and one more round would happen on Saturday after which the media will be briefed.

Uddhav's non-commital about accepting the Chief Minister's post was quite noteworthy but media did not hyped it since Pawar has given a clear indication of a consensus.

After the meeting, the Thackerays went to Dadar at the Balasaheb's Samadhi and left for their residence in Bandra.

Mysteriously Sharad Pawar had left early saying that he has certain urgent work to attend. Did Pawar get some hint from somewhere? One does not know. Today, Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena leader, said that in yesterday's meeting Ajit Pawar was evading eye to eye contact. Did Pawar also notice such things? Pawar says he did not.

But one thing became very clear from this meeting. The government of the three parties is going to be a reality very soon.

With this, the Chanakya's in the BJP got alerted. They tapped Ajit Pawar. Devendra and Ajit Pawar had been in touch for a while. They exchanged notes. Once Devendra ensured that all things are in place he decided to approach the Governor.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is an old BJP leader. He was asked to be ready for a flurry of activities for the next 18 hours. At 9.30 pm Devendra Fadnavis approached the Governor saying that he has got a support of 173 MLAs of which 105 are from the BJP and 54 are from NCP. The rests are independents or others.

Koshyari agreed to entertain him provided he could procure the letter of the NCP along with the signatures. Ajit Pawar was asked to come up with the letter. In between Governor appraised Delhi of this development.

The BJP's in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, who on behalf of Amit Shah was keeping an eye on the entire happenings, became active. The top leadership was appraised and they are in principle green signal was sought.