Former Union Home Minister Amit Shah has refused to accept Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ offer to step down taking moral responsibility of the BJP’s poll debacle in the State, and instead asked him to prepare a road map for the Assembly elections which would be due later this year.
Maharashtra is among the bigger States along with Uttar Pradesh whose poor performance held back the BJP from crossing the majority mark of 272 -- first time since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. The BJP-led ruling coalition of Mahayuti won 17 seats this time which is far less than 41 of 48 constituencies it cornered in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the coalition, the BJP won 7, Shiv Sena-Eknath faction managed 7 and NCP of Ajit Pawar 1.
After the elections were declared on June 4, Fadnavis had publicly said that he has offered to resign from the government and focus on party work. At the meeting, the 2024 mandate came up for a brief discussion and Shah is believed to have told Fadnavis that any change in the state leadership will have cascading repercussions on the party and its cadre, sources aware of the developments stated.
The BJP can ill afford any shake-up as the State electoral calendar is heavy with events other than Assembly polls. Three of Rajya Sabha MPs from Mahayuti alliance -- including BJP’s Piyush Goyal, and NCP’s Praful Patel -- have won Lok Sabha elections which would necessitate that elections to the Upper House happens in the six months since the members’ resignations.
Cabinet discussions
Shah told Deputy Chief Minister a review of the BJP’s performance in Maharashtra will take place after swearing in of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for the third time in a row.
Parallelly another meeting by BJP president JP Nadda took place with NCP leaders at his house over government formation. NCP’s Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer Bhujbal were among those present at the meeting in which it was conveyed that the BJP ally at Maharashtra is likely to get one berth in the next Modi government. It’s learnt that Praful Patel may get a chance to become a central minister again after his stint in the UPA government as part of the undivided NCP under its founder Sharad Pawar. However, the NCP is pushing for at least one more slot at centre.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena is expected to get one cabinet rank and a minister of State slot in the Modi regime. A state minister, Sandeepan Bhumre, is being talked about to get an elevation and join the Modi government. Besides, the CM is also pushing for his own son Srikant Shinde to become a junior minister at the Centre.
After the NDA won the 2019 parliamentary elections, six MPs from Maharashtra had become union ministers such as BJP’s Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, undivided Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant and Republican Party of India’s Ramdas Athawale.
The meetings on berth allocations at the centre were also held separately with different coalition partners. The BJP top brass met with TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, JDU leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan of LJP (Ram Vilas) to finalise their individual representations in the NDA government.
The NDA has Saturday to finalise the names of candidates it would like to take oath as ministers along with Narendra Modi as PM at 6 p.m. on Sunday.