Mumbai: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday left for his native village in Satara district for a couple of days amid reports that he was reluctant to accept the deputy chief minister’s post in the Mahayuti government. The Mahayuti leaders’ meeting in Mumbai scheduled for Friday was cancelled over Shinde’s absence raising further doubts over his stand.
Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant dismissed speculation that Shinde was upset and had gone to his village for personal reasons. “He (Shinde) is not upset. Even in Delhi (when he met Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday night), he was down with fever and cold. It will be wrong to say he has gone to Dare because he is upset,” the Sena leader said. “Anyone can face health issues, and if he has gone to a good place (for health reasons), there is no point in concluding that he is upset,” Samant added.
Several leaders of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena have stated that the caretaker Chief Minister should stay in the government. The party clarified that Shinde will certainly not go to the Centre as a Union minister and would prefer to stay back in Maharashtra.
As the suspense over the Maharashtra chief minister’s post continues, there is still a question mark on whether Shinde will take the post of DCM or not. According to sources, Shinde is unwilling to accept the DCM’s post and has still not informed about his next move to the BJP in this regard.
Senior Shiv Sena leader Shambhuraj Desai said that considering Shinde’s long experience and the major decisions taken by him, he should be involved in the government. “The Mahayuti coalition government will benefit from the experience of Eknath Shinde. Hence, we insist that he should be in the government. However, we have given all rights to Shinde and his decision will be acceptable to us.”
Shinde himself had stressed two days ago that there will be no obstacle from his side in the government formation, he said.
The BJP sources said that the power sharing formula among the Mahayuti parties will be 21 berths for BJP, 12 berths for Shiv Sena and 10 berths with NCP in the 43-member Cabinet of Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Chief Bhushan Gagrani met senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis at the latter’s residence. The sources said that Fadnavis discussed the venue with Gagrani regarding the oath ceremony of the new chief minister at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai and Azad Maidain in south Mumbai. The oath ceremony is expected to take place either on December 2 or 5 depending on the availability of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The central leadership has made it clear to Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde that they can’t leave their claim on the home department and to decide finance, revenue and urban development department among three partners of the Mahayuti and come up with their decision to them for final approval,” the insider said.
