Shinde government completes one month in office, but no sign of cabinet expansion yet

The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, which came to power after a high-voltage political drama, is completing one month in office on Saturday, but there is still no clarity on when the cabinet expansion will take place.

Shinde took oath as chief minister on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray was forced to step down from the post following a rebellion by the majority of Sena legislators led by Shinde.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as deputy chief minister. The government was formed 10 days after Shinde raised a banner of revolt against the Shiv Sena leadership. Forty out of 55 Sena MLAs sided with Shinde, which resulted in the collapse of the two-and-a-half-year-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation comprising the Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.

After the collapse of the Thackeray government, it was widely speculated that Fadnavis would take over the reins of the state for the third time with the support of the Sena rebels. But Fadnavis sprang a surprise after he declared that Shinde would become the next chief minister and he himself would not be a part of the new government.

But there was more surprise in store as some time later BJP’s top leadership asked Fadnavis to become a part of the government as deputy chief minister.

At present, Shinde and Fadnavis are the only members in the cabinet as its expansion is yet to be done.

There are multiple causes for the delay - the pending disqualification of rebel MLAs including Shinde pending in the Supreme Court, and differences over numbers of ministers that the Shinde faction and BJP would have and distribution of key portfolios like Revenue, Home, Finance and Planning, Urban Development, Rural Development, Energy, Water Resources and Command Area Development, Cooperation and Marketing.

Because of the delay, the new government is constantly under fire from the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress.

Describing the government as “ek duje ke liye sarkar” - a reference to the two-member dispensation, the MVA partners are hoping that under the Tenth Schedule of Constitution, the Shinde faction would have to merge with a political party.

Talking to PTI, state Congress vice president Ratnakar Mahajan sarcastically said, "It is for the first time in the state's history that a huge cabinet of two members is taking care of the large-scale floods, lack of rain at some places and things alike."

It has never been so pathetic for a political party that it can't have a complete cabinet in a state in a month's time. BJP's overambitious plan has to be blamed for this, he said. Mahajan alleged that the petition of Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of 16 rebel party MLAs was being heard in the Supreme Court.

"These legislators will save their membership if they merge their group with any other party. If the apex court upholds the whip of the original party, the rebel MLAs will be disqualified. Two-thirds split is not yet seen in the original party," he said.

Apart from the 40 MLAs, the party’s 12 out of the 19 Lok Sabha members have also rebelled against the Sena leadership. The break-away group of MPs has been recognized by the Lok Sabha speaker. But the Shiv Sena has demanded that the speaker disqualify them.

Deepak Kesarkar, chief spokesperson of the Shinde faction, said the Sena MLAs were more interested in becoming district guardian ministers than cabinet ministers to expedite development works. He claimed that there was no dispute over allocation of portfolios.

"After a long time, Maharashtra has got a chief minister who is accessible to people 24x7,” he said.

Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told PTI, "There is no government in existence for the last one month. Never before was Maharashtra's prestige undermined in such a manner. The state's honour was compromised. The oath taken by Shinde and Fadnavis is illegal."

The reason for the delay in cabinet expansion can be anything including the ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on disqualification of 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, he said.

NCP leader and former home minister Dilip Walse Patil said the inability to form a cabinet even after a month shows that the political situation in the state is still fluid.

"Due to rains and floods in several parts of the state, people are facing hardships and since there are no cabinet ministers and guardian ministers, people's issues have been neglected. Maharashtra has never before seen such a situation," he said.

However, Shinde remained confident on a Cabinet expansion, telling reporters that it would “happen soon” on Sunday.

“Whatever happens in the Supreme Court, the Shinde-Fadnavis government has kept different sets of plans ready, depending on the outcome,” informed sources told DH.

In the past one month, Shinde had been to New Delhi for various official engagements, where he also met top BJP leaders to discuss the expansion of the ministry.

In the last 30 days, the government cleared several projects and fast-tracked the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project and the controversial Mumbai Metro Line-3 car-shed in Aarey Colony.

The government also gave fresh Cabinet approvals to the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively.

During the past month, Shinde and Fadnavis had toured across Maharashtra particularly to review the floods.

(With PTI inputs)