Sukanya Shantha 
Mumbai: The chief minister is nowhere in sight.
Nor is there a clear consensus on which of the three main parties of the winning Mahayuti alliance – the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party – will get to have its elected MLAs take up prominent posts in the government.
What have been announced are the date and venue of the swearing-in ceremony of the new Maharashtra chief minister and the fact that there will be an “important guest” present.
On November 30, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule took to social media to announce that the swearing-in ceremony would be held on December 5 at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai at 5 pm. His post on X furthered claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be present at the ceremony. There is no clarity, however, on whether the Mahayuti has approached the governor of Maharashtra, C.P. Radhakrishnan, yet – a prerequisite when the parties with a clear majority show intent to form a government.
Bawankule’s statement indicated that the CM would be from the BJP, and later yesterday, it was confirmed by Ajit Pawar too that the BJP will have its person as the state head.
Bawankule’s announcement came a day after the outgoing chief minister Eknath Shinde reportedly refused to budge on his demand to continue as the chief minister of the state. Shinde reportedly conveyed in a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah that he wished to continue as the head of the state since the Mahayuti had benefited immensely under his leadership. If the BJP decides otherwise, he would prefer being out of the existing equation and support the government from “outside,” he purportedly said.
On the night of November 28, after the meeting, Shinde told the media gathered in New Delhi that the decision on who will be the next chief minister of the state would be made at a meeting in Mumbai. However, upon arriving in Maharashtra, Shinde headed straight to his hometown Dare Tamb village near Maharashtra’s popular hill station Mahabaleshwar in Satara district. His party leader, Uday Samant, tried to downplay Shinde’s decision to head to his native town instead of participating in the scheduled meeting in Mumbai by saying Shinde was unwell and needed medical treatment. According to a Times of India report, Shinde has a respiratory tract infection and is undergoing treatment at his native town. “The Shiv Sena president was unwell when he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday (November 28, 2024) night,” Samant claimed. Asked about the meeting between Shinde, BJP leader and probable chief minister, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, and Ajit Pawar that was supposed to take place in Mumbai, Samant said, “If the meeting does not take place physically, it can also be held through video conference.”
This is not the first time that Shinde has headed to his hometown right before an important decision is to be taken. Earlier, whenever his post was uncertain in the previous government, Shinde would head to Satara and go incommunicado.
If Shinde decides to walk out of the Mahayuti, it might not have a serious implication in the state, considering that the BJP alone has 133 MLAs in Maharashtra. However, his decision would certainly hurt the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in New Delhi. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena has seven elected Members of Parliament (MPs), and these are crucial for the Modi government’s stability in parliament. Additionally, the BJP is trying to project itself as capable of providing a stable future for the country, and more specifically for Maharashtra, which has had a tumultuous past five years, with parties collapsing like a house of cards and aligning and realigning ideologically as per convenience.
Bawankule’s announcement about the swearing-in ceremony is seen as a pressure tactic from the BJP, indicating to Shinde that, with or without him, the BJP will go ahead with government formation in the state.
Over two and a half years ago, when Shinde broke away from the undivided Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership and joined hands with the BJP, he was rewarded with the state chief’s post. Shinde took over, and Fadnavis had to take a back seat and accept the position of his deputy in the government. Shinde, who was initially considered to be a BJP prop, soon made his presence felt in the state by positioning himself as an important leader. All the populist schemes announced right before the recently concluded assembly elections had Shinde as the main face, similar to how Modi’s face is projected as the most important one at the Centre.
Shinde, who belongs to the Maratha community, has made it clear that he is unwilling to work under the leadership of Fadnavis, a Brahmin man. Speculation is rife that if the BJP is adamant about having its own chief minister – and only if Fadnavis is not the party’s choice for the coveted post – then Shinde has agreed to settle for the deputy chief minister’s position along with the home and finance portfolios, as well as the Speaker’s post in the assembly. Shinde is also reportedly pushing for his son, Shrikant Shinde, a two-time MP from Kalyan constituency, to be given the deputy chief minister’s post.
It is unlikely that the BJP would give in to these demands, considering these are high-profile positions and, as a bigger and stronger party in the state, the BJP would want to retain these important portfolios. Also, NCP head Ajit Pawar, who is in favour of Fadnavis’s CM candidature, would not agree with Shinde receiving these coveted positions. Promoting Shrikant Shinde to an important post in the state would also mean the Mahayuti is promoting dynasty politics in the state – optics the BJP would want to avoid.