Leaders of Mahayuti will sit together and decide on Maharashtra CM face, says Eknath Shinde's son and Kalyan MP Shrikant

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After the assembly results, the leaders of Mahayuti will sit together and decide who will be the Chief Minister (CM) of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Shrikant Shinde said on Thursday.

Speaking to ANI, the Kalyan MP further said that there is "no competition" among leaders in the alliance to become the CM.

"All leaders [of Mahayuti] will sit together and decide. There was never a competition among leaders here to be the CM. We want to form the government to do more development work in the next five years. In the past two-and-a-half years, Maha Vikas Aghadi only discussed who will be the CM. They only discussed this each day. Their message did not even reach the public," Shinde told ANI.

Reacting to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray's 'note jihad' dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shinde said that this is the opposition's attempt to set a "false narrative."

"The way they [Opposition] spread fake narrative in Lok Sabha elections... This was an attempt to set a false narrative before the public during [Maharashtra] elections," he added.

On Tuesday, Thackeray took a scathing jibe at BJP over the cash-for-votes allegation against the party's general secretary, Vinod Tawde.

In Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti is poised to retain power in Maharashtra with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) having an edge to form the government in Jharkhand, too, exit polls predicted on Wednesday as polling concluded in the two states.

Most exit polls predicted that while that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would put up a strong show in the polls, it is unlikely to cross the majority mark in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

According to the P-MARQ exit poll, the Mahayuti alliance would win 137-157 seats while MVA would get 126-147 seats and others two to eight seats.

Chanakya Strategies projected that Mahayuti will win 152-150 seats, MVA 130-138 seats, and others six to eight seats.

In Maharashtra, the primary contest is between the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance and the Congress-led MVA.

The ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance includes the BJP, Shiv Sena, and the Nationalist Congress Party, while the opposition MVA comprises the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

This election is significant as it is the first assembly poll in the state following the splits in Shiv Sena and NCP.

(With ANI inputs)