Nashik, May 2: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday claimed that Uddhav Thackeray had reached out to him and offered the chief minister's post after his rebellion plunged the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state in a crisis in 2022.

He also termed as correct the claim made by deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis that Thackeray, then chief minister, had contacted the BJP leader too and offered the top post.

The Thackeray government collapsed in June 2022 after Shinde and the majority of Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled against the party leadership.

"There is truth to the claim as they made these efforts when we decided to leave. They (Thackeray and his associates) also called me and offered the CM's post, but I had not taken the decision to be the chief minister then. We left because they had deviated from Shiv Sena supremo late Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology," Shinde told reporters here.

He was replying to a question about Fadnavis's claim that Uddhav Thackeray had offered him the chief minister's post after Shinde rebelled and the MVA government was about to fall. Thackeray had parted ways with the BJP earlier in 2019 and formed government with the NCP and Congress.

"They also made efforts in Delhi, saying the entire Shiv Sena will be with them (BJP) and asked BJP leaders not to take only some people (i.e., Shinde and his supporters) in their fold. But by then, 50 people (MLAs) were already with me. What Devendra ji has said has truth to it," Shinde said.

Asked for comment, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sachin Ahir questioned the time chosen by Shinde and Fadnavis to make these claims.

"They are making such statements after two years only to create confusion," he said.

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Aizawl (PTI): Mizoram recorded a pass percentage of 87.67 in the class 12 board examinations on Wednesday, with boys scoring marginally higher than girls,

Across the Arts, Science, and Commerce streams, boys secured an 87.7 per cent success rate, while girls followed closely at 87.66 per cent, according to the results published by the Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE).

Of the 12,243 students who sat for the examinations held between February and March, 10,734 passed, 1,394 could not, and 115 qualified for compartmental examinations.

Academic performance was strongest in the Commerce stream, which saw a 90.51 per cent success rate among 759 candidates.

The Science stream followed with 89.24 per cent pass rate out of 2,770 students who appeared for the exam, while the Arts stream, with 87,14 students, recorded a pass percentage of 86.93.

In terms of institutional performance, the results revealed that deficit schools, which receive regular government grants, maintained their status as top performers with an average 93.80 per cent pass rate across all streams, followed by private schools at 91.55 per cent, while state-run schools recorded a success rate 83.13 per cent.