MUMBAI – In a setback, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling partyhas decided not to form the government in the western state of Maharashtra- the country’s richest – leaving opposition groups scrambling on Monday tocobble together an alliance.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest part in astate election in Maharashtra last month, and was expected to comfortablyretain power with the help of its regional ally, the Shiv Sena.
But in-fighting between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, which has gone on for afortnight, has culminated in the allies parting ways, dealing the firstmajor political blow to Modi’s ruling party since it retained power with alandslide mandate in a May general election.
On Sunday, the BJP’s state president Chandrakant Patil said his party haddecided to not stake claim to form government.
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Shiv Sena, which is still officially part of a ruling alliance led by theBJP, is now trying to form a government in Maharashtra with support ofopposition parties, a senior party official said on Monday.
“We have required numbers to form the government and we will prove it,” theShiv Sena official said, declining to be named.
