KNIVES OUT AS BJP-SENA ALLIANCE TEETERS ON EDGE

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Devendra Fadnavis resigned as chief minister on Friday — the first material damage inflicted by the raging war of words between the BJP and the Shiv Sena that has plunged Maharashtra and the pre-poll alliance into uncertainty just two weeks after it got the numbers required to form the next government.

Fadnavis, 49, a surprise pick by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high-command after the 2014 assembly polls, handed in his resignation to governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari hours before the term of the assembly was to end on Friday night.

He then began a press conference in the lighter vein, saying “I am giving a good news,” before launching a scathing attack in which he accused the Sena of lying about a “50-50 formula”, its chief Uddhav Thackeray of unceremoniously snapping channels of , and the party of targeting BJP leaders — including Prime Minister Narendra Modi — through its mouthpiece Saamana.

Minutes later, Thackeray, at a press conference, lashed out at Fadnavis and the BJP, accusing them of “calling my family a liar for the first time” and expressing a litany of complaints in which he described his allies of 30 years as “hiding behind a mask” and trying to “finish us off with sweet talk”.

“I’d promised my father I would install a Shiv Sena chief minister. The Shiv Sena doesn’t need Fadnavis and [Amit] Shah for the chief minister’s post,” Thackeray Uddhav thundered.

The governor may now invite the largest party, the BJP, to prove majority in the House. The BJP has 105 MLAs and the support of 15 independent legislators, but needs another 25 seats to reach the majority in the 288member house.

If it fails to do so, the secondlargest party, the Shiv Sena, may be asked to stake claim with its 56 MLAs. Sena can only do so with the support from the Nationalist Congress Party (54 seats) and the Congress (44), who have both said that they are willing to sit in Opposition.

Should the Sena fail to muster up numbers, the governor may recommend President’s Rule, which will have to be vetted by Parliament in two months.

The impasse began immediately after the election results on October 24.