Sena settles for two MoS berths
After the Centre reshuffled its cabinet on Tuesday, the state is following suit today by inducting nine new ministers into the Devendra Fadnavis government. But the parties sharing the seat of power in Maharashtra, the BJP and the Shiv Sena, drove a hard bargain to arrive at the berth-sharing formula, at the end of which the Sena was left wanting more.
On Thursday afternoon, the Sena, which wanted a cabinet berth and two MoS posts, sent two emissaries to the chief minister’s house to covey its position. Industries minister Subhash Desai and transport minister Diwakar Raote met Fadnavis at his Malabar Hill residence Varsha, but Fadnavis rejected their demands, instead offering Sena leader Eknath Shinde the charge of the entire public works ministry. Shinde currently heads the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) segment of the PWD; the rest is the purview of BJP’s Chandrakant Patil.
After Fadnavis’s rebuff, Desai and Raote headed for Matoshree, where chief Sainik Uddhav Thackeray was brainstorming strategy to participate in the cabinet expansion with his party’s senior leadership. Dithering until the last moment, the Sena finally settled for two MoS berths.
According to Sena’s original power-sharing arrangement with BJP, it was to get five cabinet-rank ministers and seven MoSes. While it has filled its quota of cabinet ministers, it insisted on an additional cabinet berth, arguing that it was not offered any portfolio in the Centre’s cabinet expansion. The others
Apart from the Sena leaders, BJP’s pre-poll alliance partners Swabhimani Party, Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP) and Shiv Sangram Party will be also be rewarded in the rejig. Sadabhau Khot, Mahadev Jankar and Vinayak Mete from the three outfits, respectively, will be sworn in as ministers.
Four BJP legislators are also likely to take oath. These are former state BJP president Pandurang Phundkar, Dondaicha (Dhule) MLA Jaykumar rawal, Solapur MLA Subhash Deshmukh, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar from Nilanga, and Ravindra Chavan from Dombivali.
Controversial BJP legislator Jaykumar Rawal, who has seven to eight FIRs registered against him -- one of them for assaulting a police officer on the state legislature’s premises two years back -- is also in the fray.
Chandrakant Patil, who currently holds the PWD and cooperation portfolios, is likely to be elevated to the all-important revenue ministry, whose charge is currently with the chief minister after the resignation of Eknath Khadse. Patil is a trusted lieutenant of BJP national president Amit Shah.
Ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, the Opposition in the state assembly demanded that controversial faces be kept out of the reckoning. A statement issued by leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil yesterday said the chief minister should not include any tainted names in the cabinet, and that the home and agriculture portfolios get full-time ministers.
The home ministry is currently with the chief minister; while agriculture, along with nine other portfolios, was held by Khadse.
On Thursday afternoon, the Sena, which wanted a cabinet berth and two MoS posts, sent two emissaries to the chief minister’s house to covey its position. Industries minister Subhash Desai and transport minister Diwakar Raote met Fadnavis at his Malabar Hill residence Varsha, but Fadnavis rejected their demands, instead offering Sena leader Eknath Shinde the charge of the entire public works ministry. Shinde currently heads the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) segment of the PWD; the rest is the purview of BJP’s Chandrakant Patil.
After Fadnavis’s rebuff, Desai and Raote headed for Matoshree, where chief Sainik Uddhav Thackeray was brainstorming strategy to participate in the cabinet expansion with his party’s senior leadership. Dithering until the last moment, the Sena finally settled for two MoS berths.
A senior Sena leader later told Mirror the leadership had decided to send its MLAs Arjun Khotkar, from Jalna in Marathwada region, and Gulabrao Patil from Jalgaon in north Maharshtra, to be part of the ruling dispensation. “Uddhavji decided to pick rural faces since he wants to strengthen the party base there. Patil has been picked to tackle BJP leader Eknath Khadse in Jalgaon,” he said. “An internal reshuffle will take place and we have been promised a better deal then. We need some better portfolios to perform, such as revenue or excise.”
According to Sena’s original power-sharing arrangement with BJP, it was to get five cabinet-rank ministers and seven MoSes. While it has filled its quota of cabinet ministers, it insisted on an additional cabinet berth, arguing that it was not offered any portfolio in the Centre’s cabinet expansion. The others
Apart from the Sena leaders, BJP’s pre-poll alliance partners Swabhimani Party, Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP) and Shiv Sangram Party will be also be rewarded in the rejig. Sadabhau Khot, Mahadev Jankar and Vinayak Mete from the three outfits, respectively, will be sworn in as ministers.
Four BJP legislators are also likely to take oath. These are former state BJP president Pandurang Phundkar, Dondaicha (Dhule) MLA Jaykumar rawal, Solapur MLA Subhash Deshmukh, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar from Nilanga, and Ravindra Chavan from Dombivali.
Controversial BJP legislator Jaykumar Rawal, who has seven to eight FIRs registered against him -- one of them for assaulting a police officer on the state legislature’s premises two years back -- is also in the fray.
Chandrakant Patil, who currently holds the PWD and cooperation portfolios, is likely to be elevated to the all-important revenue ministry, whose charge is currently with the chief minister after the resignation of Eknath Khadse. Patil is a trusted lieutenant of BJP national president Amit Shah.
Ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, the Opposition in the state assembly demanded that controversial faces be kept out of the reckoning. A statement issued by leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil yesterday said the chief minister should not include any tainted names in the cabinet, and that the home and agriculture portfolios get full-time ministers.
The home ministry is currently with the chief minister; while agriculture, along with nine other portfolios, was held by Khadse.
