The much-awaited Mahayuti cabinet expansion has sparked discontent among BJP and Shiv Sena party workers after the leadership chose to ignore several senior leaders. The BJP has 17 cabinet ministers and three ministers of state in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet. The Shiv Sena has 10 cabinets and two ministers of state while the NCP has eight cabinets and one minister of state.
While Devendra Fadnavis struck a balance with different castes, including Maratha, OBC, tribal, Dhangar, Scheduled Castes, minorities and non-Marathi, the expansion came as a shock to many senior leaders of all three parties. While 20 new faces were inducted into the new Cabinet with a total of 40 ministerial berths, senior leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil and Sudhir Mungantiwar were ignored.
One post was kept vacant and rumours are floating around as to who this post was kept vacant for.
#WATCH | Shiv Sena leader Gulabrao Patil takes oath as Cabinet Minister in the state government, at Raj Bhavan in Nagpur. #Maharashtra | pic.twitter.com/n5LdObUZ4M
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) December 15, 2024
Fadnavis also struck a regional balance with his new Cabinet. Vidarbha, West Maharashtra, Konkan and North Maharashtra got their due. But, what sparked discontent is that as many as 14 districts had no representation, while Satara alone got four Cabinet ministers - Shambhuraj Desai (Patan), Shivendraraje Bhosale (Satara), Jayakumar Gore (Man) and Makarand Patil (Wai).
Pune has three cabinet posts and one minister of state post. Nashik and Jalgaon districts also have three cabinet ministers. While ministers Dada Bhuse, Manikrao Kokate and Narhari Jirwal come from Nashik, Gulabrao Patil, Girish Mahajan and Sanjay Savkare are from Jalgaon.
Ratnagiri district has two cabinet ministers and one minister of state. Uday Samant and Nitesh Rane got cabinet minister posts while Yogesh Kadam is a minister of state.
Raigad district has two cabinet ministers - Aditi Tatkare and Bharat Gogavale. Kolhapur has Hasan Mushrif and Prakash Abitkar representing it.
Thane district has two ministers as Pratap Saranak was sworn in after Eknath Shinde. Mumbai got two cabinet ministers after Mangalprabhat Lodha and Ashish Shelar.
While 19 districts in the state have at least one minister, 14 districts do not have a single minister.
Unhappy leaders and angry supporters
Many BJP MLAs did not hide their displeasure after being excluded from the list. Senior leader and Former Minister Tanaji Sawant did not visit the Raj Bhavan so did MLA Ravi Rana, who represents the Badnera segment in Amaravati. Though the district has five BJP MLAs, it does not have even a single ministerial post.
The leadership's decision to overlook MLA Krishna Khopde from East Nagpur irked his supporters, who gathered near Khopde's house after the oath-taking ceremony. They have decided to resign from their organisational posts in the BJP, local media reports said.
Rana's supporters too are putting up posts on social media expressing their ire.
BJP workers in Jalgaon's Jamod constituency are also upset that BJP MLA Sanjay Kute had no place in the cabinet. BJP workers and office bearers have started protesting against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on social media. Thousands of workers in hundreds of vehicles will march towards Nagpur to demand answers from Devendra Fadnavis, the reports added.
Other facts
There are a total of four women ministers in the new cabinet. These include Pankaja Munde, Madhuri Misal, Aditi Tatkare, Meghna Bordikar.
The BJP has given a chance to nine new faces in the cabinet, while Shiv Sena has six new entrants. The NCP has given a chance to five new faces.
