Mumbai: As politicking heats up ahead of local polls across Maharashtra, fresh cracks have emerged within the ruling Mahayuti with all ministers from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena staying away from a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai Tuesday. Some of these ministers even happened to be in Mantralaya before the meeting.
The Mahayuti comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). There are 11 Shinde Sena ministers in the Fadnavis cabinet.
Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, however, attended the meeting during which the state government took several key decisions such as a policy to develop ‘iconic cities’ and another for the redevelopment of state housing authority MHADA’s clusters bigger than 20 acres.
A few ministers of the Shinde Sena met Fadnavis after the cabinet meeting, supposedly to voice grievances. Sena leaders are said to be upset over the BJP’s aggressive induction of former councillors from different parties in various parts of the state, including some from the Sena, a source said.
Over the past few months, in certain cases, the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP have also inducted direct rivals of Sena leaders, such as Satyajit Patankar, a long-standing adversary of Shambhuraj Desai who joined the BJP in June, or Advay Hire, a rival of Shiv Sena minister Dada Bhuse who joined BJP Tuesday.
Polls for 42 nagar panchayats and 246 nagar parishads in the state are scheduled for 2 December, while the votes will be counted on 3 December. These elections will be followed by polls to zilla parishads and rural polls, and municipal corporations, including Mumbai.
‘Not right to call it a boycott’
Uday Samant, a Shinde-led Shiv Sena minister who holds the industries portfolio, told reporters that it wouldn’t be right to call the absence of his party’s ministers at the cabinet meeting a “boycott”.
“Yogesh Kadam is in Khed, Shambhuraj Desai is in his constituency, Sanjay Rathod’s mother has passed away so he was in his constituency, I was in the hospital for a routine check-up after which I had a meeting,” Samant said.
He brushed aside any speculation of differences. “Shinde saheb attended the meeting. You can’t say we boycotted it. It is just a coincidence. And if some ministers have gone to meet the CM, then what’s the problem? He is the head of the state. We can talk about our problems with him.”
While speaking to reporters, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said he did not even realise that there were no ministers from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena as quite a few ministers from his own party were absent too.
“I thought since nominations for local polls are being scrutinised today, absenteeism is generally high,” Pawar said.
Opposition MLA Aaditya Thackeray from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, however, slammed the Shinde Sena ministers for skipping the cabinet meeting for “selfish reasons”, calling their absence an “insult to Maharashtra and its people”.
In a post on X, the Worli MLA wrote, “Cabinet meetings are meant to solve people’s issues. They are not meant for your petty squabbles. Looks like someone will go to their village again today.”
Thackeray was taking potshots at Deputy CM Shinde, whose visit to his village in Satara district has often coincided with trouble within the Mahayuti.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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