Mr. Raut, who is on a party-building tour in north Maharashtra, was speaking in Nashik. “In previous coalitions, there may have been sharing of the Chief Minister’s post or negotiations of sharing it between parties... But in the MVA, there is no such thing and the Chief Minister will remain of the Sena [Uddhav Thackeray] for the full five-year term. The Sena had broken its alliance with the BJP in 2019 over the issue of the Chief Minister’s post, forming an ideologically opposed coalition instead with the Congress and NCP. Earlier, addressing Sena workers in Jalgaon, Mr. Raut had hit out against the party’s estranged saffron partner, the BJP, alleging that the Sena always had a secondary status in the previous BJP-Sena government and was treated akin to “slaves”.

Source: The Hindu June 13, 2021 11:04 UTC