Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressing a press conference in Mumbai.
The BJP and the Shiv Sena are back together in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP announced today that the Sena will join his government and that the two parties will also fight future elections together.
"I urged the Shiv Sena to join the government....We have decided to run the government together," Mr Fadnavis said, ending days of tense negotiations and feuding. He was flanked by leaders of the Shiv Sena and his party.
The 44-year-old chief minister said 12 Sena ministers would be sworn into his government, five of Cabinet rank and the rest ministers of state, tomorrow. Portfolios, he said, would be decided by this evening. There will be no Deputy Chief Minister, a Shiv Sena demand that held up talks for days.
Maharashtra's Raj Bhavan has been informed that new ministers will take oath at 4 pm on Friday. Sources said 20 new minster are expected to be sworn in. Mr Fadnavis had taken oath last month in a grand function at the famous Wankehde stadium with ten ministers.
The two parties, partners for 25 years, parted ways in the state just before the assembly elections held last month, after failing to agree on seat sharing. The BJP won the maximum seats, but is short of a majority. The Shiv Sena came in second, with about half the number of seats that the BJP won.
The BJP has since sought to make it clear to the Sena that those numbers have changed the balance of power in their relationship and it is now the senior partner and will call the shots.
The Shiv Sena voted against the Fadnavis government in a trust vote last month. The BJP was helped by Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, which said today that it will now play the role of a "constructive opposition."
Through the many days of strife, the Shiv Sena did not end its alliance with the BJP at the Centre. It has reportedly linked joining the Maharashtra government with one more Cabinet post at the Centre and one post of minister of state. It currently has only one Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government.