We consider the monomial expansion of the $q$-Whittaker polynomials given by the fermionic formula and via the inv and quinv statistics. We construct bijections between the parametrizing sets of these three models which preserve the $x$- and $q$-weights, and which are compatible with natural projection and branching maps. We apply this to the limit construction of local Weyl modules and obtain a new character formula for the basic representation of $\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}_n}$. Finally, we indicate how our main results generalize to the modified Hall-Littlewood case.