Maharashtra: discontent among key members of the Mahayuti

way2barak, December 17: The expansion of cabinet in Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has triggered resentment among former ministers and some lawmakers from all the three Mahayuti allies – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Governor P C Radhakrishnan administered the oath to 39 new ministers in Fadanvis’ cabinet on Sunday. The ceremony took place just a day before the start of the winter session of the state legislature on December 16.

Among the disgruntled leaders is senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who on Monday said that the denial of cabinet berth could be the ‘prize’ he got for standing up for the OBC community. Bhujbal admitted that he was ‘unhappy’ about not being inducted into the cabinet; however, he said he did not feel the need to hold talks with party chief Ajit Pawar on the matter.

As many as 11 key ministers from Maharashtra’s ruling alliance Mahayuti were dropped in the new government headed by Devendra Fadnavis.

The NCP, led by Ajit Pawar, has seen five leaders dropped, including Chhagan Bhujbal, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Sanjay Bansode, Dilip Walse Patil and Anil Patil. Three leaders have each been dropped from the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

The BJP has dropped Ravindra Chavan, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Vijaykumar Gavit, while the Sena has kept out Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar and Deepak Kesarkar.

Sudhir Mungantiwar contradicted CM Devendra Fadnavis’s claim that he was dropped after a “long discussion.” He said Fadnavis had no discussions with him about a ministerial post. Mungantiwar added that Fadnavis and state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule had told him his name was on the list of ministers a day before the cabinet expansion, but it turned out otherwise.

Shiv Sena lawmaker Rajendra Gavit, a tribal leader who was also not inducted into the Cabinet, expressed his displeasure that not a single tribal face from the Sena was included in the ministry despite the party having five to six tribal MLAs.

Vijay Shivtare, the Shiv Sena MLA from Purandar, said he was “not sad over ministership, but the treatment meted out.”

“The three leaders didn’t communicate properly. I will not take ministership even if given after 2.5 years,” he told reporters, referring to the two-and-a-half-year formula for ministers who were inducted.