Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis
In Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as CM and Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde as deputy CMs. With this, the CM chairmanship battle between Fadnavis and Shinde has ended, but the list of cabinet and ministers is yet to be finalized. It is not yet clear how many ministerial post quotas the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP will get and who will get which department. Under these circumstances, a checkmate game is unfolding among the three major parties over the division of cabinets and ministries.
Will the NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena get the same divisions divided in the Eknath Shinde-led cabinet grand alliance in Maharashtra that lasted for two-and-a-half years? Likewise, will the Fadnavis cabinet also have the same faces as the Shinde cabinet? I say this because all the faces in the Sindh cabinet managed to win the elections and became MLAs. However, if the roles of the chief minister and deputy chief minister change after the results of this election, will the nature of the cabinet also change?
Speaking to reporters after being sworn in as the chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis said there was no dilemma in expanding the cabinet. All three constituent parties will make the decision together. This is not controversial. The cabinet will be expanded before the Nagpur meeting. Apart from this, after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in, Deputy Chief Ministers Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena MLAs Bharat Gogavale and Sanjay Shirsat said that the cabinet will be expanded by next Wednesday. The winter session of Parliament will be held in Nagpur on December 16, so it is believed that the cabinet will be formed before then.
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The ongoing war for political supremacy between ministers and deputy ministers in Maharashtra has come to a halt, but that does not end the conflict. Now there may be a dispute within the Grand Alliance about the Cabinet and the Cabinet. Eknath Shinde, who resigned as chief minister and was content with the post of deputy chief minister, is looking for a good presence in the cabinet and a high-profile ministry. Similarly, Ajit Pawar also wanted to increase his political power by supporting Fadnavis from the beginning. That is why Eknath Shinde made his political stance clear even before taking oath.
Electricity equalization formula in the cabinet
A power-sharing package has emerged for Fadnavis’ cabinet, in which five MLAs are said to be filling one ministerial post. The BJP has a total of 132 MLAs and can therefore elect 22 to 23 ministers. Similarly, the Shiv Sena, which won 57 seats, is likely to get 11 to 12 ministerial posts, and the NCP, which won 41 seats, may get 8 to 10 ministerial posts. However, the formula for distributing cabinet ministers among the three parties in the Grand Alliance has not yet been officially announced. In this situation, the Shinde and Pawar camps are taking political steps to enhance their political power. The BJP, led by Devendra Fadnavis, is poised to catch up, and Shinde and Pawar are no less.
Will Shinde’s ministers find a place in Fadnavis’ team?
In 2022, the Mahayutti government was formed under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, with Chandrakant Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Suresh Khade, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ravindra Chavan, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Vijaykumar Gavit and Atul Save as ministers of the BJP quota. Likewise, Dada Bhuse, Sandipan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil, Sanjay Rathore and Shambhuraje Desai are all ministers from the Shiv Sena camp in Shinde. Similarly, Dhananjay Munde, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Aditi Tatkare, Hasan Mushrif, Anil Patil, Dharmarao Atram and Sanjay Bansode are ministers from Ajit Pawar’s NCP quota. All these ministers have won the elections again, so questions are being raised whether these leaders will be able to get a place in Fadnavis’ cabinet?
Mahayutri on portfolio conflict
In Maharashtra, there is a possible portfolio conflict between the BJP, the Eknath Shinde group’s Shiv Sena and the Ajit group’s NCP. The BJP, which won 132 seats, is now preparing to flex its muscles. The BJP is in no mood to hand over the home and finance ministries to anyone. The BJP wants to retain these two important sectors. In the Shinde-led government, Devendra Fadnavis holds the charge of home ministry and Ajit Pawar holds the finance ministry. After becoming the chief minister of the BJP, the Shiv Sena camp claimed that when the BJP gave up the chief ministership in 2022, it got the home ministry and now when Shinde gave up the chief ministership, then this A statement is being made about the Home Office.
Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde keeps making demands to the home ministry. Shinde is not even ready to take oath as Deputy Prime Minister. But it is believed he only agreed to take the oath on the promise of the Home Office. Shiv Sena MLAs have also been making demands to the Home Ministry. Likewise, NCP chief Ajit Pawar is also eyeing the finance ministry. Ajit Pawar had also served as finance minister earlier. The BJP wants to retain control of the finance ministry and law and order by retaining the finance and home ministries.
Which department will be transferred to whose account?
In the Mahayut government, everyone’s eyes are on important ministries such as home affairs, revenue, urban development, irrigation and social justice. The three parties will hold intensive talks before making a final decision on the division of departments. Even after this, the final seal will be awarded. The BJP can retain important ministries such as home, revenue, urban development, irrigation, forests, transport, higher and technical education and housing. Apart from this, the BJP can also stake its claim in departments such as culture, tribal development, general affairs, law and justice, and information technology (IT).
NCP Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is in talks with the Finance Ministry on the departments of cooperation, agriculture, panchayat, food and civil supplies, ports, relief and rehabilitation, irrigation, social justice and women and child development. These departments are all from rural areas and have direct relations with the masses. The NCP’s base is more in rural areas and hence Ajit Pawar wants these sectors to be included in his account.
Chief Minister and Deputy Minister Eknath Shinde wants to take charge of the home ministry himself but is also trying to retain all nine ministries he heads. The Sindhi camp has set its sights on the Ministry of Industry and Urban Development. Apart from this, they are also eyeing high-profile departments such as the Energy, Revenue, Irrigation and Public Works Departments (PWD). To this, the Shiv Sena’s argument is that the BJP kept all these departments in its hands when Shinde was chief minister. Therefore, since the chief minister is from the BJP, the Shiv Sena should get important departments in the same proportion. The battle for the chief ministership lasted for 12 days, but Shinde remained persistent. It seems likely that the rifts within the grand coalition will be further exacerbated by the split in the cabinet.
