MUMBAI: Brushing aside the Shiv Sena demands of making young leader Aaditya Thackeray the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, union minister and RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athawale said that instead his father and Sena president Uddhav should focus on this post in the future.
Athawale made the remarks after he called on Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari along with other allies of the BJP requesting him to invite BJP to form government in Maharashtra.
Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Athawale outrightly asked Sena to drop it's demand for keeping the chief minister's post for two-and-half years, saying such an experiment has "not been made in the country".
"My suggestion is, in future Uddhav ji should think of becoming chief minister. Aaditya is there, but he does not have that experience yet. How will the state run if Aaditya is made the chief minister?" he asked.
Aaditya is the first from Thackeray family contest an election since Shiv Sena's formation in 1960s, winning the Worli seat in Mumbai during the recently held Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The BJP and Sena have been locked in a tussle over the issue of power sharing while making the next government in Maharashtra after the alliance won the maximum seats in the assembly elections.
Athawale said that formation of government was getting delayed due to the Sena and the BJP bickering over CM's post.
Maharashtra minister Sadabhau Khot, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha leader Mahadev Jankar and Shiv Sangram's Vinayak Mete accompanied Athawale during his meeting with the Governor.
"The Governor also said it should be done soon. He said he will use the right if no clear majority proposal is made to him," the minister said.
Athawale clearly said during the 15-year rule of the Congress and NCP in Maharashtra, the chief minister's post has always gone to the party which had won the maximum number of seats.
He gave Haryana's example too, where BJP's Manohar Lal Khattar will be the CM while Dushyant Chautala of Jannayak Janata Party, which won fewer seats, has become his deputy, Athawale observed.
"It will be wrong if the Shiv Sena joins hands with the Congress or the NCP. As per norms, the Governor has the right to invite the single largest party to form government.
Sena has now demanded CM's post on a rotational basis with the BJP, citing the "50:50 formula" for allocating ministries.
The BJP won 105 seats in the polls followed by ally Sena (56), the NCP (54) and the Congress (44) in the 288- member Assembly.
