High drama unfolded on Sunday evening as Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil announced that the party has informed Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari that it does not have the numbers to form the government.

BJP’s move comes a day after Koshyari asked the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in the recently concluded elections, to “indicate the willingness and ability to form the government in Maharashtra.

Addressing media after the meeting of party’s core committee, Patil said that the people of Maharashtra gave a clear mandate to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, however, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party disrespected the mandate by not showing any intent to form a coalition government.

Chandrakant Patil said, “We got a good mandate and we could have formed the government comfortably. The mandate was for Mahayuti and since Shiv Sena is not ready to support government formation we have told the Governor that we will not be able to form the government,” Chandrakant Patil said.

Patil further wished “good luck” to the Sena if it wanted to form the government with the help of opposition Congress and NCP.

Earlier in the day, Sena continued to heap taunt against the BJP. Making yet another verbal attack, Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who has been targeting the BJP ever since the counting of election votes were held, said,  “I give my best wishes to the BJP to form their government in the state, as they claim to have majority and the numbers to have their own Chief Minister.”

In the Maharashtra Assembly election, the BJP had won 105 seats, while the majority mark in the 288-member Assembly is 145. Its ally Shiv Sena has won 56 seats, but the two parties have had bee bickering over the chief minister’s post.