Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and a senior member of the BJP, shot off Congress politician Prithviraj Chavan's claim on Monday that Ajit Pawar would replace Eknath Shinde as chief minister in August.
Fadnavis claimed that, thanks to discussions made before July 2, Ajit Pawar is aware of the fact that he will not become chief minister.
Fadnavis denied Chavan's claim that senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who is part of the state administration, will be nominated as the chief minister around August 10, saying instead that the Cabinet may be expanded by that date.—Inputs from Agencies