‘Big boss’ is watching Sena and BJP ministers

CM Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis

As the state government is about to complete a year in office, political circles have been flooded with reports that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, to drop at least five non-performing and controversial ministers belonging to his party. The BJP high command is reported to have told the CM that the ministers' poor show had reflected in the findings of the recent survey that was conducted by the party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Information available said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah apprised Shinde of the situation during their recent meeting in New Delhi. The BJP is also prepared to drop its own for non-performance and lack of public appeal. Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had approached Shah to discuss a proposal to expand the state cabinet.

These ministers head the departments that deal directly with the people who influence the poll outcome. Some ministers have faced complaints of corruption. Most of them were senior and junior ministers in the previous MVA government and one of them had quit following a controversy involving a woman. As of now, including Shinde, his party has 10 MLAs in the cabinet. The BJP also has 10 including Dy CM Fadnavis. The council of ministers can have 43 members including the CM and Dy CM.

CM Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis recently approached Amit Shah regarding expanding the cabinet. File pic/PTI

The number of cabinet members has been static for a long, but since the Supreme Court gave the government a new lease on life, the talks of a cabinet reshuffle and expansion began. Aspirants from parties have been hoping for a role, either as senior or junior ministers. The Assembly elections are due next winter.

The development is learnt to have created tension in the Shinde camp that primarily consists of 40 MLAs who broke away from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party last year. The influential ones were made the ministers, but the other Shiv Sena (Shinde) hopefuls and independents who switched sides for better political prospects have been waiting in the wings since the last cabinet expansion.

Shinde had convened a meeting of his ministers on Monday night to discuss the issues, including the BJP's demand. As far as abiding by the BJP's command is concerned, Shinde has a tough task of escaping a dilemma to execute it. Not only his but also the ally's ministers have been put under watch by the BJP's independent mechanism that prepares a pitch for axing or promoting them, depending on their performance.

However, Shinde's task won't be as easy, because some ministers he has been asked to drop are influential enough to win on their own in their constituencies. One of them is a diehard Thackeray rival.
Another is a good spokesperson and campaigner, but has been sulking of late in view of the impending decision. Another minister commands a politically sensitive tribal stronghold in Vidarbha. There is a vulnerable veteran from central Maharashtra, who had to wait for many MLA terms to become a minister.

An indication about the BJP's diktat was made by Thackeray Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut last week, but his information was shot down as baseless by the Shinde group. But over the weekend, the speculations were rife and did not rest on Monday.

Raut reiterated his claim on Monday, saying he knew that Shinde had been told to drop four ministers. "I said it first in a public meeting in Marathwada on June 8 that the BJP has asked to drop four ministers because they are corrupt and inefficient. I have four such names. The BJP has put pressure on the so-called Shiv Sena. Aren't these two separate parties? And yet there is pressure on the party that invokes Balasaheb Thackeray's name," said Raut. Shiv Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske said there was no such subject on the agenda. "This is just news spread by the media," he said, adding that cabinet expansion was also on the cards.