Maharashtra: The numbers and how many from NCP would BJP need for majority

New Delhi, Nov 23: Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra respectively early this morning.

The BJP has said that it has the required numbers to form the government. The statements in the aftermath of the developments suggest that not all in the NCP are on the same page. Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule and Praful Patel have distanced themselves from the developments and said that the decision taken by Ajit Pawar was in his personal capacity.

The BJP, on the other hand, says that all 54 MLAs of the NCP would back the government. For the BJP to prove its majority it would need the support of at least 25 NCP MLAs. It would all depend on how many of these MLAs would stay back with Sharad Pawar.

The BJP has 105 MLAs on its own. It also has the backing of 15 independent MLAs, taking its tally up to 120. In the 288 member house, the magic number if 145. If all the NCP MLAs back the government then the tally goes up to 174, which is way past the majority mark.

The Shiv Sena and Congress have 56 and 44 seats respectively.

The NCP faction opposing this new combine has said that Ajit Pawar misused the signatures of the MLAs. The signatures were taken from the MLAs for attendance, but the same was misused, the NCP's Nawab Mallik said.

Sharad Pawar, on the other hand, has called for a meeting of the NCP MLAs later today. It would be interesting to see how many would be in attendance for the meeting.