'Ajit Pawar is trying to sideline us; he is trying to be in the BJP's good books at our cost.'
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar's 'unconditional support' to Devendra Fadnavis and te Bharatiya Janata Party, and the BJP's vacillation over accepting Eknath Shinde's demand to make him Maharashtra's next home minister are among the reasons why the caretaker chief minister is upset with the BJP and has been stalling the contours of the formation of the next government in Maharashtra, two top Shiv Sena functionaries in the know of affairs tell Rediff.com.
These senior leaders separately confirmed that Shinde fears Ajit Pawar is playing his cards to get Shinde out of the way and be in the BJP's good books so as to land plum portfolios when cabinet formation begins sometime in the second week of December after the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for December 5 at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, where, as per all reports, Fadnavis will be anointed as Maharashtra's next chief minister in Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's presence.
Soon after the BJP won a mammoth 132 seats on its own in the Maharashtra assembly, Pawar, whose NCP won 41 seats, declared his unconditional support to Fadnavis to become the next chief minister.
This set the cat among the Shiv Sena pigeons who fear that Ajit Pawar could be enacting the same act his uncle Sharad Pawar unveiled after the 2019 assembly elections.
"Isn't Ajit Pawar playing the same game that his uncle played in 2019?" asks one Shiv Sena leader.
"In 2019 when the BJP and undivided Shiv Sena were engaged in a bitter tussle to claim the chief minister's post, Sharad Pawar declared his unconditional support from the outside to the BJP to form the government putting Uddhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena in a bind," recalls this Sena leader.
The Shiv Sena, which won 57 seats in the 2024 assembly elections, fears that the BJP with its 132 MLAs and the NCP with 41 MLAs, have enough numbers to comfortably form the next government and that Ajit Pawar's 'unconditional support' ploy is a tactic to grab plum portfolios in the next Maharashtra government.
"Why should Ajit Pawar have spoken about giving direct and unconditional support to Fadnavis and the BJP? Didn't we fight the election together as Mahayuti? He should have instead said that he would give his unconditional support to anybody from the Mahayuti," avers this Sena leader.
"Because he named Fadnavisji directly it has led to some genuine concerns about his intentions. Naming the next chief minister is the collective responsibility of all three constituents of the Mahayuti," the Sena leader adds.
"The government formation now has reached a stage where we have demanded that Shinde saheb should be given the home ministry but the BJP doesn't seem to be too amenable to our demand. They too have an eye on the home ministry," he adds hinting that Fadnavis, who held the home department in the previous government, would not part with this sensitive ministry.
To counter Ajit Pawar's power play, Shinde has put forth his demand before the BJP that he be allocated the home ministry portfolio along with two other important cabinet berths including urban development. Shinde handled this portfolio in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray between November 2019 and June 2022.
"If not the chief minister's post, Shinde saheb has a right to demand the home ministry given his performance as CM and also for managing and convincing 40 Shiv Sena MLAs to support his rebellion that toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government," says another Shiv Sena leader.
Shinde held a couple of meetings with senior BJP leader Amit A Shah in Delhi last week to impress on him that the BJP should allow him to continue as Maharashtra's chief minister.
"Shinde, who got a dressing down in Delhi when he suggested he be made the CM citing how his brainchild -- the Mukhyamantri Laadki Bahin Yojana -- became an instant hit in Maharashtra and how he moved earth and heaven to ensure the scheme's speedy delivery ensuring a landslide for the Mahayuti parties," adds this Sena leader.
"Shinde, who was upset by the dressing down, then decided to go to his home in Satara as a pressure tactic to at least ensure he gets the home ministry along with two-three key cabinet portfolios," the Sena leader adds, highlighting the tactics that all three Mahayuti partners are engaging in to take care of their respective party's interests.
When Shinde led his midnight rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government on the intervening night of June 22-23, 2022, and traveled with his MLAs to Surat and then Guwahati, most of the rebel Sena MLAs had held Ajit Pawar responsible for sidelining them in allocation of 'development funds'.
Two years later, Ajit Pawar still seems to be scaring the daylights out of them.
"We didn't raise any objection when he (Ajit Pawar) joined our alliance even when Prime Minister Modi accused him of indulging in a Rs 72,000 crore irrigation scam. We gladly accommodated him and today, after fighting together and winning a landslide in this election he is trying to sideline us; he is trying to be in the BJP's good books at our cost," says the Sena leader quoted earlier in this report.
"Even we would want Devendraji to become the chief minister; it would, in fact, be in everybody's interest but his (Pawar's) statement that he offers his unconditional support to Fadnavis does make us nervous," he says.
"Let the BJP name anybody and we will be happy and offer our wholehearted support but this kind of one-upmanship raises doubts in our minds about his intentions," he adds.
Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena leaders fear the BJP's ability to break both the NCP and Shiv Sena and form the next government on its own, but they are confident that the BJP will not attempt such a misadventure lest it gets utterly discredited in Maharashtra.
"There will be a huge public backlash against the BJP if it plays any mischief with the Shiv Sena. That's (public backlash against BJP) our insurance for that bad day," explains the second leader why his party has discounted the fear that even though the BJP has the capability and the wherewithal to break the Shiv Sena again it won't dare to do so.
"We believe that the BJP has got 132 MLAs of its own and it should show some magnanimity by offering the home ministry to us. They should not create an issue over this portfolio," says the first Sena leader.
"Even if Shinde saheb is made the home minister all sensitive files are ultimately cleared by the chief minister and the latter can easily bypass the home minister when it comes to clearing files," adds the first leader.
Building up the pressure on BJP as part of its own power play, these Shiv Sena leaders also harped on the possibility of infighting within the BJP delaying the Constitutional obligation of electing the leader of the majority party in the legislature.
"We are also wondering why the BJP has not yet declared Devendra Fadnavis's name. Even they are dilly-dallying on this issue," says the first Sena leader.
"Everybody in the BJP knows how hard he has toiled for this victory but still there seems to be something amiss in the delay in naming the leader of BJP's legislature party," he adds.
"The BJP has hundred reasons of its own," says he pointing at the intra-party rivalry between Fadnavis and Vinod Tawde, now the BJP's national general secretary, who was once a claimant for the chief minister's job in the state.
"You already have Vinod Tawde waiting in the wings; then there's lot of heartburn among several BJP leaders over how Pankaja Munde and Eknath Khadse (both influential OBC leaders from Marathwada and Vidarbha respectively) have been treated (by Devendra Fadnavis). These people may not be in the race for the top job, but they have been nursing their wounds and are unhappy souls," adds the second leader.
"Let that be as it is, but the Shiv Sena will definitely get the home ministry and Shinde saheb will be the next home minister," he declares confidently.
